 Nisu is classified as Southeastern Loloish by Pelkey (2011), but is traditionally classified as a Northern Loloish language.Bradley (1997) also lists the endangered Kathu and Mo'ang languages of Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan, China as Northern Loloish languages, but they were later classified as Mondzish by Lama (2012) and Hsiu (2014).Within Northern Loloish, David Bradley (2007) recognizes the "Nosoid" and "Nasoid" subgroups.