Khatso (kha55tso31 [special characters omitted]; also Katso, Kazhuo [special characters omitted], Gazhuo [special characters omitted] and Yunnan Mongolian; ISO 639-3:kaf) is an endangered Ngwi (or Yi) language spoken in Xingmeng, a single farming village in Yunnan, China. Khatso speakers, who number about 5600 people, are descendants of the Mongolian soldiers Kublai Khan brought to Yunnan in the 13th century, and they still identify as Mongolian today. The language has evolved considerably through language contact, however, and is now considered part of the central branch of the Ngwi language family within the Tibeto-Burman phylum.

Almost all of the Khatso are bilingual in Mandarin or the local Yunnan dialect, because that is the only way to communicate with outsiders. Chinese is also the only language used in school and mastering it is necessary to pursue an education or find employment outside the town. Children continue to learn the language, but many parents teach them Chinese first and Khatso second. Moreover, there is no writing system; the language is not supported by print media or technology. As a result, the vitality of the language is eroding rapidly. This dissertation is part of larger project to document Khatso in order to help preserve and revitalize the language.

The research and analysis presented in this dissertation differ significantly from previous efforts to describe the language. In addition to identifying the basic building blocks - phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and the lexicon - there is an emphasis on capturing Khatso the way it is spoken in daily life. Natural language data were gathered during nearly a year of fieldwork in Xingmeng, via both audio and video recordings, creating a large multimedia corpus of the language. Transcriptions of the recordings formed the foundation for the investigation, which follows a discourse-functional approach to linguistic analysis. As a result, this grammar is the most comprehensive analysis of Khatso yet, providing an in-depth look at the features, structures and systems that interact to comprise this unique language. It is also the first major study of the language in English.

Khatso is a tonal language that is both analytic and isolating. The phonology is similar to that of most Ngwi languages, with the exception of its relatively large eight-tone system. Tone sandhi is triggered by a variety of phonological, syntactic and discourse factors. There is very little morphology in the language, and most of the lexicon consists of monosyllabic and disyllabic monomorphemes. There is a rich classifier system, which also marks number and specific reference. Typical word order is SV/APV, though there is a great deal of flexibility in discourse. Simple noun modifiers follow nouns, but relative clauses precede them. Serial verb constructions are frequent, and may describe one- and two-event situations. There is no verbal inflection; the aspectual system is indicated by grammatical particles. There is also no evidential system, but both the interrogative and emphatic marker inventories include morphemes that convey epistemic information.

The most fundamental feature of Khatso is the fact that it is a pragmatics-based language, meaning that verbal semantics and discourse context are often more crucial than syntax in comprehending the language. Topic-comment structures and zero anaphora are frequent, regularly creating utterances in which key information is underspecified or absent. Some constructions, such as pragmatic agent marking, are triggered only when the context is ambiguous. And, many particles and constructions in Khatso are multifunctional, relying on context to clarify meaning. Essentially, syntax sets the stage for several potential interpretations and only the flow of information in a specific utterance points to the correct choice. Moreover, some constructions are only identifiable through contextual analysis, such as the many clause-combining structures that link phrases pragmatically without syntactic integration. Consequently, the discourse-functional approach used here has proven especially useful for painting a comprehensive picture of the Khatso language.