Nahuatl is an Uto-Aztecan language spoken by about 1.5 million
people in Mexico. The majority of speakers live in central
Mexico, particularly in Puebla, Veracruz, Hildago, San Luis
Potosi, Guerrero, Mexico (state), El Distrito Federal, Tlaxcala,
Morelos and Oaxaca, and also in El Salvador. There are smaller
numbers of Nahuatl speakers throughout the rest of Mexico, and
in parts of the USA. There are numerous dialects of Nahuatl,
some of which are mutually unintelligible. Most Nahuatl speakers
also speak Spanish, with the exception of some of most elderly.
Classical Nahuatl was the language of the Aztec empire and was
used as a lingua franca in much of Mesoamerica from the 7th
century AD until the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. The
modern dialects of Nahuatl spoken in the Valley of Mexico are
closest to Classical Nahuatl. Nahuatl was originally written
with a pictographic script which was not a full writing system
but instead served as a mnemonic to remind readers of texts they
had learnt orally. The s