Clever scientists from University of Wales, Aberystwyth have discovered that cats on Ynys Mon speak a different language from cats on mainland Wales.
Team leader Prof Alfred Tiddles explained:
“By recording cats on Ynys Mon and then feeding our data into our computers’ back at Aberystwyth we have determined that cats on the Isle on Anglesey vocalise differently to other cats in the United Kingdom.
“It appears that cats on the island add the phoneme ‘io’ to the end of their expressions so for instance they say “meowio” rather than just a straight “meow” as would be expected”.
His Phd student Rex Fido is trying to raise funding for a similar experiment next year and explained:
“Can you imagine if our data showed that dogs on the Isle said “woofio” rather than the received pronunciation “woof” or even “bowio wowio” rather than just “bow wow?”
The project is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, the European Regions in Distress Directive II and Sir Richard Branston.
