Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Grammar of the Katso Language in Yunnan, China

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

Katso is an endangered minority language spoken in a single farming village in China's Yunnan Province. The speakers are descendants of Mongol troops who conquered the region in the 13th century under Kublai Khan. The language evolved from extensive contact between the Mongols and other local minorities such as the Bai and the Yi, and is thus considered a mixed language. Today it is classified as variant of the officially recognized Yi language (Tibeto-Burman) although the two are mutually unintelligible. The 5000 speakers are under increasing pressure to speak Mandarin since that is the only way to pursue an education or find employment outside the village. Consequently, many children now learn Katso as a second language. It is therefore crucial that Katso be documented while it is still vibrant and in daily use. The goals of the project are to create a comprehensive corpus of Katso and write a detailed grammar of the language. The corpus will consist of digital audio and video recordings accompanied by transcriptions with linguistic annotation. The language captured will include a wide variety of discourse types, such as traditional narratives, personal anecdotes, conversation, ceremonies, idioms, jokes and songs. Archived with both the speaker community and at a professional language archive, the corpus and the resulting grammar will create a permanent record of the language for future use by villagers and scholars alike. The project will considerably expand our knowledge of this unique language and provide the foundation for future scholarly investigations into fundamental questions on mixed languages and language contact, historical change, and language classification. The project will benefit the Katso community. Materials such as recordings of traditional songs and stories will be made available, and interested speakers will be trained and mentored. In addition, workshops on language documentation will be offered to interested students at the Yunnan University of Nationalities.