What language did ancient Mexico speak?

Nahuatl language
Nahuatl language, Spanish náhuatl, Nahuatl also spelled Nawatl, also called Aztec, American Indian language of the Uto-Aztecan family, spoken in central and western Mexico. Nahuatl, the most important of the Uto-Aztecan languages, was the language of the Aztec and Toltec civilizations of Mexico.

What language did Mexico speak before colonization?

The only indigenous language spoken by more than a million people in Mexico is the Nahuatl language; the other Native American languages with a large population of native speakers include Yucatec Maya.

What language do the Mexican speak?

English
Spanish
The Mexican/Languages

How many native languages are in Mexico?

68 native languages
A total of 68 native languages are spoken, divided into more than 350 linguistic variants. It is estimated that more than 7 million Mexicans speak an indigenous language, in which the following stand out: Nahuatl, Maya, Otomí, Mixteco, Zapoteco, Totonaco, Chol and Mazateco.

How old are the indigenous languages of Mexico?

Many of the indigenous languages of Mexico boast linguistic data at least 5,000 years old. As early as 2,000 BC, the three major language families of Mexico were already in use: Mayan, Mixe-Zoquean, and Oto-Manguean.

What language did the Olmecs and Mayans speak?

The Oto-Manguean language spread across central Mexico, the Mayan language speakers migrated north, and the Olmecs, primarily speaking languages from the Mixe-Zoquean family, stabilized and settled. As other civilizations began to flourish over the Olmecs, they brought their own language families, like Uto-Aztecan.

How many languages are spoken in Mexico?

While many of these are only spoken by small, isolated pockets of the population, out of the indigenous languages of Mexico, 76 are commonly spoken—and 87 are considered developing. For example, the Chontal Maya, spoken in the north-central and southern towns of Tabasco state in Eastern Central Mexico, is regularly used by over 37,000 people.

How many people still speak Mixtec today?

Today, an estimated 759,000 people still speak the language, mainly in the states of Yucatán, Quintana Roo, and Campeche. The third most widely spoken indigenous language of Mexico is Mixtec, which belongs to the Oto-Manguean family.