My sphynx is very fond of licking herself and anyone else that happens to be around, so I don’t think they’re bothered by the roughness of their tongue. 

it’s a genetic thing for white cats (which this charming hairless fellow appears to be) with blue eyes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaf_white_cat

re: grooming, i know when my cats try to groom me, i often have to stop them because the bristly tongue is just too much.  so i just imagine a sphynx feeling driven to bathe, yet quickly annoyed by the rasping on bare flesh!  (maybe that’s why they look so extra grumpy?)

I hear Sphynxes feel very warm and velvety soft when you pet them. If it gets cold, you can knit them little kitty sweaters. And mostly, they just look and act like all cats do.

What I worry about is their lack of whiskers. Doesn’t it throw off their balance and sense of space?

‘Two hairless female kittens born in 1975 and 1976, Epidermis and Dermis, to barn cats in Minnesota became an important part of the Sphynx breeding programme and further hairless cats were found in Texas, Arkansas and Minnesota. Modern Sphynx therefore trace their origins to the second Canadian bloodline and to the Minnesota cats.’

Barn cats in Minnesota?  Overall, this just strikes me as a cat breed founded in meanness.

“Mew,” the kitten retorted, locking gazes with him. It had the
expression common to all kittens, that of a tyrant in the becoming. I
was comfortable, and you dared to move, those jade eyes said. For that
you must die.