The languages of the native peoples of Mexico

Nahuatl is one of the large ones, and was spoken throughout the Aztec Empire in central Mexico.

I've heard Maya being spoken on numerous occassions when I was in the Yucutan and Quintana Roo. It was completely incomprehenisble to me, and I felt it was a very strange language. Often times when words appear with a double vowel like the Maya word, "Chaac", both the vowels are stressed, so that the word is elongated. "Chaac" would be pronounced (ch - a - a - k). I was suprised to learn that many Maya whom I encountered did not speak Spanish, or at least did not speak it well. I was forced to use a lot of pointing and sound effects in an attempt to communicate with them, lol.

LAA,

Languages of Native American Peoples are not Indoeuropean, and have not such a clear connection with languages from other areas of the world either. But what is more astonishing is, they sometimes do not present a connection between each other either!!!...

In the territorium of today's Mexico there are still 62 native languages alive, plus Spanish, altough most of them are on the verge of extinction, the most representatives are:

Nahuatl (the languages of the Aztecs and some other peoples from central Mexico area)
Maya
Totonaca (Veracruz area)
Huasteco (North from the high plateau)
Zapoteco (Oaxaca; a beautiful language, full of smooth sounds and an exquisite melody)
Purépecha (Michoacan)

I think that all of them will saddly disapear in no more than 100 years

The mexican government has tried for the last few years to support the teaching of the native languages. In Oaxaca there is a Zapoteco radio station.

Here is a link to a Spanish - Zapoteco Dictionary

http://www.sil.org/mexico/zapoteca/yatzachi/S037b-Diccionario-zav.pdf

Nahuatl is still spoken by over a million people around Mexico City, mainly in rural areas, with a majority Native population.

I would say Maya is still running strong in the far south, where a lot of the native people speak it as their first language.

I have read that Nahuatl is related to the languages of the people as far north as the natives of California, such as the Chumash.