| Yucatecan | |
| Also Known As: | Yukatekan |
| Ethnicity: | Maya peoples |
| Speakers: | 720,600 |
| Date: | 1990–2006 |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Mayan |
| Fam2: | Core Mayan |
| Protoname: | Proto-Yucatecan |
| Child1: | Mopan–Itzaj |
| Child2: | Yucatec–Lacandon |
| Glotto: | yuca1252 |
| Glottorefname: | Yucatecan |
| Map: | Yucatecan_map.svg |
| Mapcaption: | Current extent of Yucatecan languages in Belize, Guatemala, Mexico |
The Yucatecan languages form a branch of the Mayan family of languages, comprising four languages, namely, Itzaj, Lacandon, Mopan, and Yucatec. The languages are presently extant in the Yucatán Peninsula, encompassing Belize, northern Guatemala, and southeastern Mexico.
The Yucatecan languages are split into two branches, namely, Mopan–Itzaj and Yucatec–Lacandon. This subdivision, and the inclusion of the Yucatecan languages within the Core Mayan family, is ‘the most widely accepted classification’ as of 2017. However, some linguists formerly grouped Huastecan, Cholan–Tseltalan, and Yucatecan languages together, but this is now deemed erroneous.
Yucatecan speakers are thought to have first settled the Maya Lowlands some 400 years after the diversification of Core Mayan, which has been glottochronologically dated to around 1900 BC. There, they were joined by Ch’olan–Tseltan speakers sometime during 1000–800 BC, though only Ch’olan speakers remained after about 200 BC. By the third century AD, Yucatecan speakers would form part of an area of heightened language contact, centred on the Lowlands, which saw significant linguistic diffusion across Mayan and non-Mayan languages. By the ninth century AD, their language would start appearing in Classic Mayan hieroglyphic texts. Presently, Itzaj is spoken in Peten (Guatemala), Lacandon in Chiapas (Mexico), Mopan in Cayo, Stann Creek, Toledo (Belize) and Peten (Guatemala), and Yucatec in Corozal, Orange Walk (Belize) and Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo (Mexico).