In Japanese, a nyanko にゃんこ is a colloquial way to refer to a cat, specially a kitten. The word is formed from an onomatopoeia for the sound cats make, "meow," in Japanese: nyan にゃん, and ko 子, which in this case is a suffix used to refer to something cute.
So nyanko is how you say "kitty" in Japanese. But more literally nyanko means "lil' meow" or something like that. Note, however, that despite the cutesy origins of the word, it may be used in a very enraged way depending on the situation.
- Context: an old man wakes up in the body of a girl because of a cat.
- kono... kuso nyanko...!!
この･･･クソニャンコ･･･！！
[You]... damn kitty...!! - kono karada wa nan'ya
この体はなんや
What's [up with] this body.- nan'ya - same as nanda なんだ, kansai dialect.
- omae wa nanimono ya...
お前は何者や･･･
Who are you...?- ya - same as the da だ copula, dialectal.
- haa haa
ハァハァ
*panting* - washi ni nan'no urami ga an-nen......!!
ワシになんの恨みがあんねん･･････！！
What do [you] have against me......!!?- an-nen - contraction of aru nen あるねん, dialectal.
- ~ni urami ga aru - to have a resentment, grudge against [someone].
Variants
Since it's a pet-like name, sometimes the chan honorific suffix is added to make stuff cuter: nyanko-chan にゃんこちゃん. The term nyanchan にゃんちゃん may also be used to say "kitty."
The words above are usually written with hiragana, mostly because hiragana is cuter, but they can be written with katakana, too.
| nyanko | ニャンコ |
| nyanko-chan | ニャンコちゃん |
| ニャンコチャン | |
| nyanchan | ニャンちゃん |
| ニャンチャン |
The term wanko わんこ is the dog counterpart of nyanko.
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