Spanish colonial documents refer to the inhabitants of a broad swathe of territory as Chols or Cholans; this territory extended from the Laguna de Términos through the Lacandon Jungle across the foothills of the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes eastwards to southern Belize. A number of distinct Chol- or Cholan-speaking groups inhabited this area; the Manche Chʼol were just one of these groups and spoke the now extinct Chʼoltiʼ language. Chʼoltiʼ was descended from the Classic Maya language used in hieroglyphic texts. Chʼoltiʼ was very closely related to the Chʼol, Cholan and Chʼortiʼ languages. The Chʼoltiʼ language is evidenced from a single document written in the late 17th century in the Manche Chʼol territory; it has been held in the library of the American Philosophical Society since the 19th century. The document is the Arte y vocabulario de la lengua Cholti, 1695 by Spanish friar Francisco Morán, with the catalogue number Mss.497.4.M79. It was compiled in the Manche village San Lucas Tzalac. The term manche, is derived from the elements men, meaning artisan, and che, meaning either tribe or tree; it was the name of a large Manche Chʼol settlement.