The various groups of Timucua spoke dialects of the Timucua language. At the time of European first contact, the territory occupied by speakers of Timucuan dialects stretched from the Altamaha River and Cumberland Island in present-day Georgia as far south as Orlando in the interior of Florida, and from the Atlantic coast to the Aucilla River, yet never reaching the Gulf of Mexico.
<span>"Timucua" (from "Thimogna") was originally the term used by the Saturiwa (of the area near present-day Jacksonville) to refer to the related people living north of the Santa Fe River between the St. Johns River and the Suwannee River. The Timucua Province of the Spanish mission system originally was this area. This was also the area of the Timucua proper dialect of the Timucuan language. During the 17th century the Spanish mission Province of Timucua was extended to include the area between the Suwannee River and the Aucilla River. The population of the Timucuan people at the time of European contact was around 50,000 people by one estimate, around 200,000 by another. The Timucua were organized into at least 35 chiefdoms at the time. While alliances and confederacies arose between the chiefdoms from time to time, the Timucua were never organized into a single political unit. The various groups of Timucua speakers practiced several different cultural traditions.</span>
