Close - they meow for their cat mothers too in the wild, it’s just that humans keep cats in a permanently juvenile state when we keep them as pets. Also, our patting them mimics their mother’s tongue action, which causes them to purr, which is also an entirely natural sound for them to signal the mother that they are alive and content. We did not change them so much as co-opt what was already there, using it for the benefit of both human & cat:-). From there, some things like level of aggression and body size were bred to suit our mutual partnership better.