Pipil people

Nahua
Nahua family in Sonsonate, El Salvador.
Regions with significant populations
Western and central El Salvador, Western Nicaragua
El Salvador869,210
Nicaragua695,538
Honduras6,388
Costa Rica~1,000
Languages
Nawat, Spanish
Religion
Christianity (predominantly Catholic) and traditional indigenous beliefs
Related ethnic groups
Nahuas, Nicarao people, Lenca

The Pipil or NĂ¡huat are an indigenous group of Mesoamerican people inhabiting the western and central areas of present-day El Salvador and Nicaragua. They are a subgroup of the larger Nahua ethnic group, and are closely related to the sub-group of the Pipil, The Nicarao people. They speak the Nawat language, which is a closely related but distinct language from the Nahuatl of Central Mexico. There are very few speakers of Nawat left, but there are efforts being made to revitalize it.

At the time of the Spanish conquest, the Pipil were largely concentrated in Cuzcatlan, covering most of western El Salvador. Pipil populations were also present in Guatemala, and likely in various parts of Honduras. The Nawat language has already gone extinct in Guatemala and Honduras, but there is a small population of acculturated Nahuas in the Olancho Department of eastern Honduras.

Their cosmology is related to that of the Toltec, Maya and Lenca.