Southern Coahuila Nahuatl

Southern Coahuila Nahuatl, or Neotlaxcaltec Nahuatl, is a variety of Nahuatl that was spoken in the northeast of Mexico, mainly in the municipalities of San Esteban and Parras de la Fuente in Coahuila, and Guadalupe and Bustamante in Nuevo León. A related variety was spoken in the west and central-north zones of the country, in the municipalities of Mexquitic, Teúl, Lagos de Moreno and Colotlán.

During the colonial era, the Tlaxcaltec colonization of the northeast of New Spain led to the foundation of new settlements and cities. San Esteban de Nueva Tlaxcala, in the south of Coahuila, was the most influential, and from here families of Tlaxcaltec colonists dispersed to found new cities like San Miguel de Aguayo (today Bustamante, Nuevo León), San Francisco de Coahuila (today Monclova, Coahuila) and Santa María de las Parras (today Parras de la Fuente, Coahuila). The latter, in turn, was a point of dispersion for families to found Viesca.

This northern variety, derived from 16th-century Tlaxcala Nahuatl, developed certain innovations which can be observed in documents written in it, primarily proceeding from the south of Coahuila and the north of Nuevo León, as the region was essentially devoid of other Nahua settlements. There is a short vocabulary list of this variety, which was published in the 20th century.