The unclassified Kehu language, spoken between Turunggare and Burate, may turn out to be East Geelvink Bay as well.

Clouse (1997)[2] removed the Lakes Plain languages of the upper Mamberamo River in the interior of Papua from Trans–New Guinea, where Würm had placed them, and by comparison with Bauzi and Demisa proposes them to be a sister family of the East Geelvink Bay languages.

Basic vocabulary cognates that Clouse suggests to connect the two stocks include: However, in his 2005 classification based on comparative evidence from pronouns, Malcolm Ross treats all three groups as separate families, with Yawa tentatively placed in an extended West Papuan family.

[1] The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto–East Geelvink Bay are, Basic vocabulary of selected East Cenderawasih languages (Barapasi, Bauzi, Demisa, Tunggare) listed in Foley (2018).

[1] The following basic vocabulary words are from Clouse (1997)[2] and Voorhoeve (1975),[3] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[4]