page_title: Indigenous languages of the Americas
section_title: Central America and Mexico
hierarchical_section_title: Indigenous languages of the Americas / Language families and unclassified languages / Central America and Mexico
caption_attribution_description: English: Present locations of chibchan languages and possible past extension in the 16th century
context_page_description: Indigenous languages of the Americas are spoken by indigenous peoples from Alaska, Nunavut, and Greenland to the southern tip of South America, encompassing the land masses that constitute the Americas. These indigenous languages consist of dozens of distinct language families, as well as many language isolates and unclassified languages.
  Many proposals to group these into higher-level families have been made, such as Joseph Greenberg's Amerind hypothesis. This scheme is rejected by nearly all specialists, due to the fact that some of the languages differ too significantly to draw any connections between them.
  According to UNESCO, most of the indigenous American languages are critically endangered, and many are already extinct. The most widely spoken indigenous language is Southern Quechua, with about 6 to 7 million speakers, primarily in South America. In the United States, 372,000 people speak an indigenous language at home.
context_section_description: In Central America the Mayan languages are among those used today. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras. In 1996, Guatemala formally recognized 21 Mayan languages by name, and Mexico recognizes eight more. The Mayan language family is one of the best documented and most studied in the Americas. Modern Mayan languages descend from Proto-Mayan, a language thought to have been spoken at least 4,000 years ago; it has been partially reconstructed using the comparative method. 
  Alagüilac (Guatemala) †
  Chibchan (Central America & South America) (22)
  Coahuilteco †
  Comecrudan (Texas & Mexico) (3) †
  Cotoname †
  Cuitlatec (Mexico: Guerrero) †
  Epi-Olmec (Mexico: language of undeciphered inscriptions) †
  Guaicurian  (8) †
  Huave
  Jicaquean (2)
  Lencan (2) †
  Maratino (northeastern Mexico) †
  Mayan (31)
  Misumalpan (5)
  Mixe–Zoquean (19)
  Naolan (Mexico: Tamaulipas) †
  Oto-Manguean (27)
  Pericú †
  Purépecha
  Quinigua (northeast Mexico) †
  Seri
  Solano †
  Tequistlatecan (3)
  Totonacan (2)
  Uto-Aztecan (United States & Mexico) (33)
  Xincan (5) †
  Yuman (United States & Mexico) (11)
caption: The Chibchan languages
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