Maban languages are spoken in eastern Chad, the Central African Republic and western Sudan (Darfur).

The Maban branch includes the following languages: The languages attested in two word lists labelled "Mimi", collected by Decorse (Mimi-D) and Nachtigal (Mimi-N), have also been classified as Maban, though this has been contested.

Blench (2021) gives the following classification:[1] Based on morphological evidence such as tripartite number marking on nominals, Roger Blench (2021) suggests that the closest relatives of the Maban languages may be the Eastern Sudanic languages, especially the Taman languages, which form a branch within Northern Eastern Sudanic.

Glottolog considers Maban a small but separate language family.

Blench (2021) posits the following consonants for proto-Maban:[1] Vowels likely were ATR pairs, with at least *a *ɛ *e *i *ɔ *o *u and possibly *ɪ *ʊ, plus length.