Mesoamerican Languages - Geographical Overview

Geographical Overview

Mesoamerica can be divided into smaller linguistic subareas wherein linguistic diffusion has been especially intense, or where certain families have extended to become predominant. One such subarea would be the Maya area covering the Yucatán Peninsula, all of Guatemala and Belize, and parts of the states of Chiapas and Tabasco, where Mayan languages have been highly predominant. In Chiapas and on the Guatemalan Pacific coast, speakers of Mixe–Zoquean languages were initially dominant, but with the spread of Mayan languages they were pushed out on the fringes of the areas, or into isolated pockets, and the same was the case for speakers of Xinca and Lenca which were probably also spoken in the area in the preclassic period. Another linguistic area is Oaxaca, which is dominated by speakers of Oto-Manguean languages; here Mixe–Zoque speakers were also gradually displaced by speakers of Zapotecan languages, as well as by speakers of Huave and Tequistlatecan languages. Oaxaca is the most linguistically diverse area of Mesoamerica and its 36,820 square miles (95,400 km2) contain at least 100 mutually unintelligible linguistic variants. The subarea commonly called Central Mexico, covering valleys and mountainous areas surrounding the Valley of Mexico, originally contained mostly northern Oto-Manguean (Oto-Pamean) languages; however, beginning in the late classic these languages were gradually displaced by Nahuatl, which is now the predominant indigenous language of the area. The Western area was inhabited mostly by speakers of P'urhépecha and some Uto-Aztecan languages such as Huichol and Nahuatl. The Northern Rim area has been inhabited by semi-nomadic speakers of Uto-Aztecan languages (the Tepiman and Cora-Huichol groups) as well as Pamean (Oto-Mangue), and other languages that are now extinct. The Gulf area is traditionally the home of speakers of Totonacan languages in the northern and central area and Mixe–Zoque in the southern area. However, the northern gulf area became home to the speakers of Huastec in the preclassic period, and the southern area fell under Nahuan dominance in the post-classic period. The Central American area was originally inhabited by speakers of Misumalpan, Jicaquean and Chibchan languages which became subject to dominance and linguistic influence by Maya speaking groups in the classic period. Guerrero does not really constitute its own linguistic area; however, it has been influenced from the Oaxacan, Western or central Mexican area at different times of its history.