page_title: Mexicans
section_title: Languages
hierarchical_section_title: Mexicans / Languages
caption_attribution_description: English: Usage map for the year 2000 of the indigenous languages of Mexico having more than 100,000 speakers. Español: Mapa de ubicación de las lenguas indígenas de México, que poseen más de 100 mil hablantes al año 2000.
context_page_description: Mexicans are the people of Mexico, a country in North America.
  The Mexica founded Tenochtitlan in 1325 as an altepetl located on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico. It became the capital of the expanding Aztec Empire in the 15th century, until captured by the Spanish in 1521. At its peak, it was the largest city in the Pre-Columbian Americas. It subsequently became a cabecera of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Today the ruins of Tenochtitlan are located in the central part of Mexico City.
  The modern nation of Mexico achieved independence from the Spanish Empire in 1810; this began the process of forging a national identity that fused the cultural traits of indigenous pre-Columbian origin with those of Spanish origin. This led to what has been termed "a peculiar form of multi-ethnic nationalism".
  The most spoken language by Mexicans is Mexican Spanish, but some may also speak languages from 68 different indigenous linguistic groups and other languages brought to Mexico by recent immigration or learned by Mexican immigrants residing in other nations. In 2015, 21.5% of Mexico's population self-identified as being Indigenous.
context_section_description: Mexicans are linguistically diverse, with many speaking European languages as well as various Indigenous Mexican Languages. Spanish is spoken by approximately 92.17% of Mexicans as their first language making them the largest Spanish speaking group in the world followed by Colombia (45,273,925), Spain (41,063,259) and Argentina (40,134,425). Although the great majority speak Spanish de facto the second most populous language among Mexicans is English due to the regional proximity of the United States which calls for a bilingual relationship in order to conduct business and trade as well as the migration of Mexicans into that country who adopt it as a second language.
  Mexican Spanish is distinct in dialect, tone and syntax to the Peninsular Spanish spoken in Spain. It contains a large amount of loan words from indigenous languages, mostly from the Nahuatl language such as: "chocolate", "tomate", "mezquite", "chile", and "coyote".
  Mexico has no official de jure language, but as of 2003 it recognizes 68 indigenous Amerindian languages as "national languages" along with Spanish which are protected under Mexican National law giving indigenous peoples the entitlement to request public services and documents in their native languages. The law also includes other Amerindian languages regardless of origin, that is, it includes the Amerindian languages of other ethnic groups that are non-native to the Mexican national territory. As such, Mexico's National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples recognizes the language of the Kickapoo who immigrated from the United States, and recognizes the languages of Guatemalan Amerindian refugees. The most numerous indigenous language spoken by Mexicans is Nahuatl which is spoken by 1.7% of the population in Mexico over the age of 5. Approximately 6,044,547 Mexicans (5.4%) speak an indigenous language according to the 2000 Census in Mexico. There are also Mexicans living abroad which speak indigenous languages mostly in the United States but their number is unknown.
caption: map for the year 2000 of the indigenous languages of Mexico having more than 100,000 speakers.
exif: {}