this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
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Who the hell spells meowing like that?
Very normal in Romania at least (miau). Not as weird as what we write for dog barks (ham).
Ham? Is it pronounced differently?
You can definitely pronounce ham in a way that it kind of sounds like a dog barking if you try hard enough. Right? Or is that just me?
The A is a bit more open than in English, kinda like the A in father, but otherwise no.
Other countries spell it differently, it's neat
Most of Latin America writes "miau"
Huh, we also spell it like that in Germany. Surely this is the same for entirely normal reasons...
Well, most languages read vowels somewhat similarly. It’s English that differs from the norm and therefore often has „weird“ spellings, especially for onomatopoeia.
See Great Vowel Shift
Yeah English teachers in my country start the first lesson by telling you that in English you don’t pronounce words exactly as written. Because in Estonian, each letter has exactly one sound. Grammatical context can change the length of the sound, but not really the sound itself.
Also it’s spelled mjäu.
In Spain too.
English spelling is trash, but in fairness, if it's "meow", then "meowing" does seem logical.
Still, utter trash.
Spelling Bees are English telling on itself.
Kind regards, A terrible, but unashamedly so, first-language English speller.
I've seen it spelt both meow and miaow in the UK. My old Little Oxford dictionary (1986 edition) only has the miaow spelling, with mew as the variation. Meow isn't even in it.