Marc Gunn - Celtic American Music, Celtic Podcaster, and Cat Lover

About Marc Gunn   ;Buy CDs and Music Downloads   Shows   Journal   Marc Gunn Podcasts   Booking

 
 

MARC GUNN

Marc Gunn is Celtic American Musician and Podcaster. Good food, good drink and good company. Folk ballads, Irish drinking songs, fantasy, Sci Fi, and cats on the autoharp. Embrace independent Celtic music!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Why A "Cat" Is Called A "Cat"

The English word "cat" is very similar to the word used for our feline pets in other languages spoken in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The table below lists the word for cat and the language:
  • Kat Dutch
  • chat French
  • Katze German
  • gatta Greek
  • kottur Icelandic
  • gatto Italian
  • qattus Maltean
  • katt Norwegian
  • kot Polish
  • gato Spanish
  • katt Swedish
Clearly "cat" is an ancient word that spread into many regions from a single source. The source appears to be Arabic because the oldest use of "cat" is in North Africa where the term is "quttah".

A few other terms relating to cats originate from the Mediterranean. One is the word "tabby", which is derived from the Turkish word "utabi". And the general word for a cat in Turkey is "kedi", which may be the ancestor term for the English word "kitty".

From the Cat Nips newsletter.

You can check out my new CD "Whiskers in the Jar: Irish Songs for Cat Lovers" for some great cat music.

Labels:

---
New to Marc Gunn's blog? Consider subscribing to my RSS feed: Subscribe to this blog's feed. Or sign up to get email updates and join my street team!

posted by Marc Gunn @ Wednesday, April 09, 2008

 

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home

Embrace
Indie Celtic music!

Buy CDs
Buy Merchandise
iTunes Music Store
Celtic Songs and Folk Music Downloads

Celtic Folk Club
Make a donation

 


Press kits
Quantcast

 


Marc Songs Podcast

House Concerts

Marc Gunn Merchandise

Celtic Invasion Vacations

 


 
Bard Marc Gunn Home | celtic songs & free folk music downloads | autoharps
brobdingnagian bards | celtic mp3s music magazine | music marketing tips | email me

Irish heritage? Love cats? Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers
Houston Web Hosting Discount - Discount Web Hosting Reviews for Houston

Copyright 1999-2009 Marc Gunn
PO Box 4396, Austin, TX 78765, 512.470.4866

 

eXTReMe Tracker