The disyllables in Buyang have been used by Sagart (2004)[3] to support the view that the Kra-Dai languages are a subgroup within the Austronesian family.
Ethnologue mistakenly includes the Hlai language Cun of Hainan in Kra; this is not supported by either Ostapirat or Edmondson.
[8] Andrew Hsiu (2013, 2017) reports that Hezhang Buyi, a divergent, moribund Northern Tai language spoken by 5 people in Dazhai 大寨, Fuchu Township 辅处乡, Hezhang County 赫章县, Guizhou, China, has a Kra substratum.
[9] Maza, a Lolo–Burmese language spoken in Mengmei 孟梅, Funing County, Yunnan, is also notable for having a Qabiao substratum (Hsiu 2014:68-69).
"Hotspots" for Kra languages include: within China, most of western Guizhou, the prefecture-level city of Baise in western Guangxi, and Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in southeastern Yunnan; as well as northern Vietnam's Hà Giang Province.
This distribution runs along a northeast-southwest geographic vector, forming what Jerold A. Edmondson calls a "language corridor.