On Bald, Evil Cats and the Sound They Make
Spanish onomatopoeias: “marramamiau”
When our eldest daughter was four and attending preschool in Spain, she brought home an unwelcome guest: Gato Pelado, “bald cat.”
A storyteller who was excellent at her job (giving credit where credit is due) told her class a couple of stories on an outing to the library.
Our daughter mostly remembered the second one, Cocorico by María Luisa Núñez, about a fluffy yellow chick in perpetual danger after stuff happened involving a sponge cake. The stalker of cake and creature, Gato Pelado, would yowl marramamiau.
You’ve got to admit that’s much more impressive than a meow.
The Spanish onomatopoeia for cat noise is usually miau.
Marramamiau, however, is miau on steroids.
Registered by the Spanish Royal Academy as marramao or marramáu, it’s technically associated with feline mating season.
One of my favorite uses of the onomatopoeia, in line with this definition, is found in an ancient folk tune, Estaba el señor don gato. Its stanzas vary throughout the country, but, in a nutshell, it recounts how lordly Mr. Cat fell off the roof over a marriage proposal, breaking his spine, tail, and seven ribs. At some point he must have died, because…
