The Chʼolan-Tzeltalan languages form a top-level branch of the Mayan family of languages, comprising two subbranches, Ch'olan and Tzeltalan. In total, the branch comprises six languages, namely, Chʼol, Chontal, Chʼortiʼ, Chʼoltiʼ, Tzeltal, and Tzotzil. Notably, the language of Mayan hieroglyphs is now deemed the ancestor of one or more of the Ch’olan languages.

The Tzeltalan branch comprises two languages, Tzeltal and Tzotzil. The Ch’olan languages are split into two branches, namely, the Eastern and Western Ch’olan brannches, each of which comprises two languages.^[1] Chʼortiʼ and Chʼoltiʼ are the two Eastern Ch’olan languages, while Chʼol and Chontal are the two Western Ch’olan languages.^[2]

The inclusion of the Ch’olan languages within the Chʼolan–Tzeltalan, Western Mayan, and Core Mayan families is the most widely accepted classification as of 2017.^[1]. Nonetheless, while it is generally accepted that the Western Mayan family comprises the Ch’olan–Tzeltalan and Greater Q’anjob’alan languages, this has never been completely confirmed.^[3] Furthermore, some linguists formerly grouped Huastecan, Cholan–Tzeltalan, and Yucatecan languages together, but this is now deemed erroneous.^{[3][note 1]}

Both branches are characterized by the absence of uvular stops. The phoneme /p'/ is present in Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Ch'ol and Chontal (the Tzeltalan and Western Ch'olan branches). Ch’ol retains the palatalized alveolars of proto-Mayan. ^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

Ch’olan–Tzeltlan speakers are thought to have first settled the Maya Lowlands after the diversification of Western Mayan some 3,000 years before present.^[9] There, the Ch’olan–Tzeltalan languages would have split into Ch’olan and Tzeltalan at around 200 BC.^[10] By the third century AD, Ch’olan speakers formed part of an area of heightened language contact, centred about the Lowlands, which saw significant linguistic diffusion across Mayan and non-Mayan languages.^[11] During the same period, their language would come to dominate Mayan hieroglyphic writing.^{[12][note 2]} Ch’olan would then split into Eastern and Western Ch’olan in about AD 600, with Western Ch’olan diversifying first in about AD 800, and Eastern Ch’olan last in about AD 1500.^[13] By the time of Spanish contact, Ch’olan speakers would be found splayed across a crescent at the base of the Yucatán Peninsula, stretching from the Bay of Campeche to that of Honduras, with Chontal speakers in the western Lowlands, Ch’ol in the southwestern Lowlands, Ch’olti’ in the southern Lowlands, and Ch’orti’ in the northeastern Highlands.^[14] The Spanish conquest of Peten brought about the extinction of Ch’olti’, one of only two Mayan languages not extant as of 2017.^[15] Presently, Ch’ol is spoken in Chiapas, Tabasco and Campeche, Mexico, Ch’orti’ in Chiquimula and Zacapa, Guatemala, and Chontal in Tabasco.^{[16][note 3]}

• Acala Chʼol
• Lakandon Chʼol
• Manche Chʼol
• Toquegua

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