New Web Index: 2005 Indigenous Languages of Mexico

Published Nov. 29, 2023

The Map and Geospatial Hub is pleased to present a new web map index: 2005 Indigenous Languages of Mexico.

close up of the city of Cancun with the concentrations of the speakers of the Maya/ Maaya T'aan language depicted by the various shapes. The yellow color of the shapes signifies a 5-25% margin of the local population that is fluent in the given language.
View of Cancun in the Maya/ Maaya T'aan language.
  • Geographic Coverage: Mexico
  • Date: 2005
  • Scale(s): 1:50,000 & 1:250,000
  • Physical Availability: in-house only
  • Digital Availability: scanned (600dpi)

This index spatially organizes 150 maps covering the 59 officially recognized indigenous languages spoken throughout the country. The map collection features the hundreds of Mexican villages and towns where these Native languages are spoken.

A zoomed in portion of one of the maps that focuses on the Mayan language family, with villages of differing sizes shown and percentage of native speakers shown.
A portion of the Yucatán peninsula, showing villages of various sizes.

One can select and deselect the various regions to see the language groups and how these languages overlap. 

Various languages in southern Mexico depicted with a multitude of colors.

Those interested in the distribution of Mexico’s indigenous tongues might also be interested in exploring and cross-referencing these 2005 linguistic maps with the 1909 Linguistic Map of Mexico and Central America map application, also found within ASU GeoData. Moreover, one can access the raw GIS data layer featured in that map application (1909 Linguistic Regions of Mexico and Central America) and directly overlay the linguistic regions from that 1909 map application over these more contemporary 2005 data. One can analyze and develop insights into the historical-geographical evolution of indigenous languages in the region.
 

If you’d like to access high resolution images of these infographic maps, please submit a Map/Geo Service Request and we’ll be sure to get back to you within two business days, but typically sooner. 


      -Robert Wickett, Map and GIS Assistant

Tags

Mexico, mexico, indigenous, language, lostlanuage, maps, linguistics