Book excerpt: 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.