Mexico

To which language should you translate to localize in Mexico?

“Spanish is the most widely-spoken language in the country. With almost 124 million people, Mexico is the country with the largest number of native Spanish speakers in the world! However, Mexico has an extraordinary linguistic diversity that includes more than 50 indigenous languages such as Nahuatl, Zapotec or Mayan.That’s why the Spanish spoken in Mexico is a mix of many regional variations, local accents, a wide spectrum of expressions and a unique colloquial vocabulary defined by its indigenous heritage.For example, in the southern state of Chiapas, Spanish might resemble that of Central American Spanish. But in the northern states, there’s a very distinctive accent and evident influence from their English-speaking neighbors. In contrast the one used in the Yucatán Peninsula is defined by the intonation and use of Mayan words. And while the Central-Mexican accent from Mexico City might be commonly used as the “neutral” for translating, each region has its very distinctive features.“

Official language

Spanish (90%)

Actual languages

Spanish (90%), Mayan languages (1.9%), Náhuatl (1.5%), Zapotec (1.1%), Mixtec (0.7%), other (4.8%)

What the top 150 best localized websites in the world do in Mexico

(Top 150 websites listed in the Global by Design ranking – published annually by Byte Level Research, this report provides a list of globally localized websites, showcasing best practices and emerging trends in their globalization)

• 128/150 localize by translating into Spanish
• 4/150 localize by translating into LatAm Spanish
• 1/150 localizes by translating into Mexican Spanish
• 1/150 localizes by translating into LatAm Spanish, French and Simplified Chinese
• 1/150 localizes by translating into Spanish, Yucatec Maya language, Nahuatl, Zapotec, Mixtec and Mexican Sign Language
• 1/150 localizes by translating into Spanish, Tzotzil, Yucatec Maya language, Mam language, Western Apache language and Qʼeqchiʼ
• 1/150 localizes by translating into Spanish, French, German, Italian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Arabic, Hungarian, Bahasa Indonesia, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Thai, Turkish and Ukrainian
• 1/150 localizes by translating into Spanish, French, German and Italian