Chol is an indigenous language of Mexico spoken in the southern state of Chiapas by between 100,000 and 200,000 people. Chol is a member of the Mayan language family, which includes around 30 languages spoken in southern Mexico and northern Central America by more than 3 million people. Chol belongs to the Cholan sub-family along with Chontal, Chortí, and Choltí.

The word Chol (also pronounced and written with an initial ejective: Ch'ol) is used to refer both to the language and to the people who speak it. while the origins of the term are not entirely certain, it is thought that the label was externally imposed and is related to the root Chol for 'cornfield' (Spanish 'milpa'). John Attinasi (1973) writes that:

Slashing (/cho-bal/) with a machete to clear jungle-forest for cornplanting, and /ixim/, maize corn itself, are both quasi-sacred to the Chol people; it is not unlikely that at the time of first contact they would have identified themselves to others as people of the milpa. Even today, the most frequent euphemism for the often pejorative 'indian' is campesino 'peasant, fieldworker.'

Chol-speakers themselves call their language lak ty'añ which translates to 'our word(s)' or 'our speech'. To refer to Chol-speaking people they use lak pi'ilob, literally, 'our friends'.

The majority of Chol-speakers are subsistence farmers living in rural areas of the Chiapan counties of Tila, Palenque, Salto de Agua, Tumbalá, and Sabanilla. Choles grow mainly corn and beans, as well as bananas, squash, greens, and other fruits. Many also raise chickens, turkeys, and pigs for fiestas or for sale in the market. Coffee is also grown and sold in the region. More on Chol culture can be found in this ethnographic report.

I began studying the Tila dialect of Chol in 2001 and first traveled to Chiapas to do fieldwork in the Chol-speaking village of Campanario in the summer of 2002.