It was formerly known as Paya, and continues to be referred to in this manner by several sources, though there are negative connotations associated with this term.

[1] It is spoken near the north-central coast of Honduras, in the Dulce Nombre de Culmí municipality of Olancho Department.

Pech is thought to have South American origin, as it shares similar roots with the Kuna language of Panama.

On the basis of shared grammatical innovations, Pache (2023) argues that Pech is most closely related to the Arhuacic languages of northern Colombia, forming a Pech-Arhuacic subgroup.

At the time of initial Spanish contact, Pech was most likely spoken from Trujillo in the west to Cabo Gracias a Dios in the east, and as far south as the upper Patuca River (Holt 1999).

Allophones of the sounds /b, ʃ, j, k, kʷ, w/ are realized as [β, tʃ, ᵈj~ɲ, ɡ, ɡʷ, ᵑw̃].

Notes: Notes a â ã b ch e ê ẽ h i î ĩ k kw l m n ñ o ô õ p r rr s sh t u û ũ v w y In Pech, the high tone is shown with an accent over the vowel, and unmarked vowels are of the low tone.

The focus of a sentence is marked by the emphatic suffix -ma, which may follow nouns, pronouns, verbal nominals, time adverbials, and other word types.