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 | |
|---|---|
| Kazhuo, Khatso | |
| Native to | China |
Native speakers | (4,000 cited 1997)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kaf |
| Glottolog | kats1235 |
| ELP | |
Katso speakers call themselves kʰɑ⁵⁵tso³¹ (卡卓) or kɑ⁵⁵tso³¹ (嘎卓) (Kazhuoyu Yanjiu).
Phonology
editKatso is young, being no older than 750 years old.[3] Lama (2012) lists the following sound changes from Proto-Loloish as Kazhuoish innovations.
- *x- > s-
- *mr- > z-
Consonants
editThe consonants for Katso according to Donlay (2019) are as follows:[3]
| Labial | Alveolar | (Alveolo-) | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | ||||||
| Nasal | voiced | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Stop/ | 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
editKatso 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].[3]
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.[3]
Tonemes
editKatso 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.[3]
References
edit- ^ Katso at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Lama, Ziwo Qiu-Fuyuan (2012), Subgrouping of Nisoic (Yi) Languages, thesis, University of Texas at Arlington
- ^ a b c d e Donlay, Chris (2019). A grammar of Khatso. Mouton Grammar Library (1. Auflage ed.). Berlin Boston: de Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-057693-1.