How Japanese Cats Meow

ニャーニャー (nyaanyaa) is the Japanese version of “meow meow”. It’s also commonly written ニャアニャア or shortened to a single ニャー (nyaa). The sound is so famous outside Japan that it inspired the global “Nyan Cat” meme — that infinitely-flying Pop-Tart cat with rainbow trail singing “nyan nyan nyan” is just doing Japanese cat sounds.

ニャーニャー belongs to the giseigo (擬声語) category, the type of onomatopoeia that captures vocal sounds from living beings. Japanese has five types of onomatopoeia, and giseigo specifically covers actual sounds made by animal and human voices.

When to Use ニャーニャー

Use ニャーニャー when describing a cat meowing repeatedly — usually demanding food, attention, or to be let outside. The most common patterns are 「猫がニャーニャー鳴く」(neko ga nyaanyaa naku, “the cat goes meow meow”) and the action verb 「ニャーニャー言う」(nyaanyaa iu, “to meow”). Like ワンワン for dogs, Japanese toddlers use ニャンニャン (nyannyan) as their word for cat itself.

Fun Fact

The Japanese verb for “meow”, 鳴く (naku), uses the same kanji as the verb for animals crying or making noise in general. So when a Japanese cat ニャーニャー鳴く, it’s literally “meow-meow-crying”. The shortened ニャン (nyan) has become a beloved suffix in anime girl characters who add it to their sentences for cuteness — a vocal tic that translates roughly to ending every sentence with “meow!” in English.