Mbalo is an Austronesian (Dayak

Dayak languages

The term Dayak is used for the languages of the Dayak people; that is, those languages of Borneo apart from varieties of Malay and language of Chinese, Indian, and European origin...

) language of Borneo. Apart from Taman

Taman language

Taman is an Austronesian language of Borneo. Apart from Mbalo, it is not close to other languages....

, it is not close to other languages, and its classification has long been controversial. Adelaar and Himmelmann (2005) propose that it was especially close to Buginese

Buginese language

Buginese is the language spoken by about four million people mainly in the southern part of Sulawesi, Indonesia.-History:The word Buginese derives from the word Bahasa Bugis in Malay. In Buginese, it is called while the Bugis people are called...

. However, it is frequently left as an isolate within (Nuclear) Malayo-Polynesian

Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian languages

The Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian languages are a branch of the Austronesian family, proposed by Wouk & Ross , that are thought to have dispersed from a possible homeland in Sulawesi. They are called nuclear because they are the conceptual core of the Malayo-Polynesian family, including both Malay and...

, a position supported by a 2008 lexicostatistical study.

Kalis (Kalis Maloh) may be a distinct language.