Katso language

Katso
Kazhuo, Khatso
Native to	China
Native speakers	(4,000 cited 1997)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Lolo–Burmese Loloish Kazhuoish Katso
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kaf
Glottolog	kats1235
ELP	Kazhuo Khatso

Katso, also known as Kazhuo or Khatso (autonyms: kʰɑ⁵⁵tso³¹, kɑ⁵⁵tso³¹; Chinese: 卡卓), is a Loloish language of Xingmeng Township (兴蒙乡), Tonghai County, Yunnan, China. The speakers are officially classified as ethnic Mongols, although they speak a Loloish language. Over 99% of the residents township speak Katso, and Katso is used as a means of daily communication, though it is fading amongst younger speakers.

Katso speakers call themselves kʰɑ⁵⁵tso³¹ (卡卓) or kɑ⁵⁵tso³¹ (嘎卓) (Kazhuoyu Yanjiu).

Phonology

Katso is young, being no older than 750 years old. Lama (2012) lists the following sound changes from Proto-Loloish as Kazhuoish innovations.

• *x- > s-
• *mr- > z-

Consonants

The consonants for Katso according to Donlay (2019) are as follows:

		Labial	Alveolar		(Alveolo-) Palatal	Velar	Glottal
			plain	sibilant
Nasal	voiced	m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop/ Affricate	unvoiced	p	t	ts	tɕ	k
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	tsʰ	tɕʰ	kʰ
Fricative	unvoiced	f		s	ɕ	x	h
	voiced	v		z		ɣ
Approximant	voiced			l	j	w

Consonants may not appear as clusters, and there are no coda consonants in Katso. The consonants /m/ and /ŋ/ can serve as syllable nuclei. Some authors like Mu (2002) and Dai (2008) describe an additional phoneme /ʑ/.

Vowels

Katso does not exhibit certain vowel qualities common in other Loloish languages like nasal vowels or the laryngeally-constricted vowels found in Nuosu.

	Front	Central	Back
			unrounded	rounded
Syllabic Consonant		z̩ v̩
Close	i		ɯ
Mid	ɛ		ɤ	ɔ
Low	a

The two fricated vowels, /z̩/ (transcribed as /ɿ/ in Sinologist convention) and /v̩/ are described by Donlay (2019) as being a high central apical vowel and a high central fricative vowel respectively. The two both exhibit high degrees of turbulence and frication. The phoneme /z̩/ may only occur after /s, z, ts, tsʰ/, and contrasts with /i/ (see tsz̩⁵³ "basket" / tsi⁵³ "to cut (with scissors)". The high central fricative /v̩/, compared to its fricative counterpart /v/, is pronounced with the articulators more open forming a more resonant quality. In some instances it may lose sufficient frication to be similar to [u] or [ʋ].

Donlay identifies 8 diphthongs, /iɛ ia io ɛi uo ua ui au/ and two triphthongs /iau uɛi uai/, out of which /io/, /ia/, and /uai/ mainly occur in loanwords from Chinese.

Tonemes

Katso has eight tones, three level tonemes (55, 44, 33), two rising tones (35, 24), two falling tones (53, 31) and a "peaking" low-falling-rising tone. The 44 toneme only occurs in a scant few words, mostly of Mandarin Chinese origin.