It is closely related to the Pangasinan language, which is spoken primarily in central and southern Benguet, and western Nueva Vizcaya and eastern La Union.

Ibaloi phonemes are similar to those found in other Philippine languages with a few exceptions.

Many variants of the Ibaloi tongue have naturally occurring /f/, /dʒ/ and /v/, as in sifa (interrogative 'who'), ibjag ('to lose one's grip on something or someone, to let go') and devit (a traditional wrap-around skirt).

/ʃ/ is also commonly heard in the La Trinidad valley and nearby areas, as in xima (a particle usually equivalent to the prepositions in, on, or to depending on the sentence construction), but may be occasionally heard as /tʃ/ in some communities.

[2] Ibaloi is one of the Philippine languages that do not exhibit [ɾ]-[d] allophony.