Back Uto-Asteekse tale Afrikaans لغات يوتو أزتيكية Arabic Llingües uto-azteques AST Uto-astek dilləri Azerbaijani یوتو آزتک دیللری AZB Юта-ацтек телдәре Bashkir Юта-ацтэкскія мовы Byelorussian Yezhoù outoek-aztekek Breton Uto-asteca Catalan Juto-aztécké jazyky Czech

Uto-Aztecan languages

Uto-Aztecan
Geographic
distribution		Western United States, Mexico
Native speakers
1,900,412 (2014)
Linguistic classificationOne of the world's primary language families
Proto-languageProto-Uto-Aztecan
Subdivisions
Language codes
ISO 639-5azc
Glottologutoa1244
Pre-contact distribution of Uto-Aztecan languages

Current extent of Uto-Aztecan languages in Mexico

The Uto-Aztecan[a] languages[b] are a family of indigenous languages of the Americas, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The name of the language family reflects the common ancestry of the Ute language of Utah and the Nahuan languages (also known as Aztecan) of Mexico.

The Uto-Aztecan language family is one of the largest linguistic families in the Americas in terms of number of speakers, number of languages, and geographic extension.[2] The northernmost Uto-Aztecan language is Shoshoni, which is spoken as far north as Salmon, Idaho, while the southernmost is the Nawat language of El Salvador and Nicaragua.[3][4][5] Ethnologue gives the total number of languages in the family as 61, and the total number of speakers as 1,900,412.[6] Speakers of Nahuatl languages account for over 85% of these.

The internal classification of the family often divides it into two branches: a northern branch including all the languages of the US and a southern branch including all the languages of Mexico, although it is still being discussed whether this is best understood as a genetic classification or as a geographical one. Below this level of classification the main branches are well accepted: Numic (including languages such as Comanche and Shoshoni) and the Californian languages (formerly known as the Takic group, including Cahuilla and Luiseño) account for most of the Northern languages. Hopi and Tübatulabal are languages outside those groups. The Southern languages are divided into the Tepiman languages (including O'odham and Tepehuán), the Tarahumaran languages (including Raramuri and Guarijio), the Cahitan languages (including Yaqui and Mayo), the Coracholan languages (including Cora and Huichol), and the Nahuan languages.

The homeland of the Uto-Aztecan languages is generally considered to have been in the Southwestern United States or possibly Northwestern Mexico. An alternative theory has proposed the possibility that the language family originated in southern Mexico, within the Mesoamerican language area, but this has not been generally considered convincing.


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  1. ^ "Nahuatl Family". SIL International. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  2. ^ Caballero 2011.
  3. ^ Mc Callister, Rick (2013). "Nawat – and not Nahuatl. Central American Nawat and its flavors: Nawat pipil and Nawat nicarao". Revista Caratula.
  4. ^ Constenla Umaña, Adolfo (1994). "Las lenguas de la Gran Nicoya". Revista Vínculos. 18–19. Museo Nacional de Costa Rica: 191–208.
  5. ^ "Nicarao".
  6. ^ Ethnologue (2014). "Summary by language family". SIL International. Retrieved July 2, 2014.

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