30 Ways to Say Meow

Is this kitting saying "meow," "miar," or perhaps "yaong"?
Photo via Adobe Stock.

The English word for the characteristic sound of a cat is "meow" (or "miau," "miaow," or "meaow"). Other languages have their own versions, and because you never know when you might find yourself talking to a cat or cat person from Albania, Denmark, or Japan, I have compiled this handy Meow Translation Chart. Most of the translations link to a Google page where you can hear what the word sounds like in that language (to hear it, just click the little speaker on the right side of the Google page).

The Meow Translation Chart is interesting for a couple of reasons: first, because so many of the words look and/or sound a lot like the English "meow," so I guess that is what quite a few of you humans think we cats sound like. The second interesting point at first might sound like the opposite of the first point: There is quite a bit of diversity in spelling and pronunciation, and even though the letters might say “m-e-o-w,” the spoken word can sound very different from what we American cats are used to (take the Welsh version for a spin to see what I mean).

What's your favorite non-English word for "meow"? Let us know in the comments!

Meow Translation Chart
Afrikaans	miaau
Albanian	mjaullin
Azerbaijani	miyavlamak
Bosnian	mijau
Bulgarian	myaukane
Chinese	miāo
Croatian	mijau
Czech	mňoukání
Danish	meow
Dutch	miauw
Finnish	miau
French	meow
German	miauen
Greek	niaoúrisma
Hindi	myā'ū
Hungarian	miau
Icelandic	meow
Italian	meow
Japanese	nyā
Korean	yaong
Macedonian	meow
Norwegian	mjauer
Polish	miauczeć
Portuguese	miar
Russian	myau
Spanish	maullar
Swahili	meow
Swedish	jama
Turkish	miyav
Welsh	meow