We have one of those, too. Vet's vbest guess was she was grabbed by the throat, and thrown out of a car. Broke her little meow.
Starving, about the size of a 6 or week kitten, but had 4 month old teeth. That was going on 14 years ago.
She still "mmm-yeps" instead o "MEOWing".
Our Bobbie has a very tiny, very odd voice. When she speaks (rarely), she sounds as if there’s a kitten in a closet somewhere. For a long time, we thought that she was mute, and when she spoke, we couldn’t figure out where the noise was. She was very much Miss Hissy Slashy, so we figured that someone was really mean to her before she came to us.
She is making great strides, and we hope to eventually make a lap cat out of her.