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Woman in cat mask runs amok with knives, answers 'meow' to police officers (www.koreaherald.com)

submitted 1 week ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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A bizarre incident involving a mentally ill woman recently occurred at a store in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, where the suspect, wielding knives and wearing a cat mask, threatened employees and customers, including small children.

When the police arrested her and asked why she did it, she answered "meow" and said, "Can't tell you that, meow."

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[–] tal@lemmy.today 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (13 children)

Woman in cat mask runs amok with knives, answers 'meow' to police officers

I wonder if the article author translated it or whether she was speaking English.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-linguistic_onomatopoeias#Mammal_sounds

Cat meowing

English: miaow (UK), meow (US)

Korean: 야옹 (yaong)

[–] drolex@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 week ago (11 children)

miaow (UK)

Excuse me, WTF? I have lived 7 years in the UK, and never have I heard a cat profer this kind of drivel. Is this some cockney shit?

Also, thank you for your insight about mammal accents. It made me slightly xenophobic but I appreciate the knowledge.

[–] javiwhite@feddit.uk 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (10 children)

Are you saying that miaow and meow sound different phonetically to you?

Its not cockney rhyming slang, but rather a simple variance in spelling. Do colour Vs color/ catalogue Vs catalog etc... sound different phonetically to you also?

I'm a native English speaker, so maybe that's why they seem identical; but I could see how a different mother tongue would change that perspective.

Edit: removed aluminium because I momentarily forgot that Americans say 'aloomanum' and that one isn't an example of a spelling variance with identical phonetics.

[–] drolex@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I suppose all the examples you give convey some little trace of the accent from their respective regions. Slightly longer final syllables in the UK for instance.

But more to the point, the spelling 'miaow' is completely new to me. But I receive very few letters from British cats so maybe that explains it.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Here's an example from the BBC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeUM1WDoOGY

Why Do Cats Miaow? | Cats Uncovered | BBC

Though just to mix things up, the BBC Earth YouTube channel appears to be using title case capitalization in that title, which is typically an American English style, there. The main BBC YouTube channel appears to use the more-usually British English sentence case capitalization.

So I expect that there's always the possibility that people aren't always super-religious about the form of English that they use.

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