Fifteen families of languages are native to Mexico and Central America. Some of these families, such as Uto-Aztecan, overlap into North America, and others, such as Chibchan and Maipurean, extend from South America into Middle America.

The Maya family consists of 31 languages spoken principally in southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Chol was the main language during the Classic period of Maya civilization, from about AD 300 to 900. It was joined later by Yucatec Maya. Several Mayan languages have many speakers, including K'iche' with 675,000, Yucatec Maya with 500,000, Mam with 400,000, and Kaqchikel with 375,000.

More people speak each of these languages than speak all the Native American languages in Canada and the United States combined.

However, other languages in the Mayan family have very few speakers; two are already extinct.

The Otomanguean family contains about 30 languages, in a geographic area that extends from northern Mexico to Nicaragua. The most widely spoken Otomanguean languages are Otomi with 300,000 speakers, Zapotec with 300,000, and Mixtec with 250,000.

The Mixe-Zoquean family is of special importance because the Olmecs, who founded the first great civilization of Middle America about 1200 BC, appear to have spoken a language in this family.

Today, a dozen or so Mixe-Zoquean languages are spoken in southern Mexico.

Another large family is Uto-Aztecan, which extends from the Western United States through Mexico and into Central America. It includes Nahuatl, the language of the ancient civilizations of the Toltecs, which lasted from the 10th to 13th centuries, and the Aztecs, which lasted from the 14th to 16th centuries, and their modern descendents.

More than 1 million people speak Nahuatl today.

Several languages of the Chibchan family are spoken in lower Central America, including Paya, Rama, Bribri, and Guaymi, while most Chibchan languages are found in northern South America.

A number of smaller families and isolated languages are also found in Middle America. They include the Tequistlatecan family in Mexico, the Xincan family in Guatemala, the Jicaque family in Honduras, and the Lencan family in Honduras and El Salvador.

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