Mexico

Mexican Spanish

The most widely spoken Spanish variety in the world. Heavily shaped by Nahuatl and other indigenous languages, especially in lexicon, and exported widely through Mexican film and music.

Northern Mexican Spanish

also: Norteño Spanish

The Spanish of northern Mexico, centred on Monterrey and Chihuahua. Distinct from central Mexican Spanish in vowel realisation, intonation, and a distinct lexicon shaped by long contact with US English.

Yucatec Spanish

also: Yucatecan Spanish, Español yucateco

The Spanish of the Yucatán peninsula. Heavily shaped by contact with Yucatec Maya, with distinctive intonation, glottalised stops, and a substantial Mayan-derived lexicon.

Yucatec Maya

also: Maya, Mayaʼ tʼaan

The most-spoken Mayan language, used across the Yucatán peninsula by around 800,000 people. Direct linguistic descendant of the language used in the Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Classic period.

Mam

A Mamean Mayan language spoken across the western highlands of Guatemala and adjacent parts of Chiapas, Mexico. Around 600,000 speakers.

Nahuatl

also: Mexicano, Nawatlahtolli

The largest Uto-Aztecan language, spoken across central Mexico by around 1.6 million people. The language of the Aztec Empire, with literary records in Latin script since the 16th century.

Plautdietsch

also: Mennonite Low German

A Low German variety preserved by Mennonite diaspora communities since the 16th century. Spoken across colonies in Mexico, Paraguay, Bolivia, Belize, and the Canadian Prairies.