The languages are presently extant in the Yucatán Peninsula, encompassing Belize, northern Guatemala, and southeastern Mexico.

[1] This subdivision, and the inclusion of the Yucatecan languages within the Core Mayan family, is ‘the most widely accepted classification’ as of 2017.

Yucatecan speakers are thought to have first settled the Maya Lowlands some 400 years after the diversification of Core Mayan, which has been glottochronologically dated to around 1900 BC.

[5] By the ninth century AD, their language would start appearing in Classic Mayan hieroglyphic texts.

Presently, Itzaj is spoken in Peten (Guatemala), Lacandon in Chiapas (Mexico), Mopan in Cayo, Stann Creek, Toledo (Belize) and Peten (Guatemala), and Yucatec in Corozal, Orange Walk (Belize) and Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo (Mexico).