According to Blench, the structure of Mantsi differs significantly from the other South Bauchi languages.
[2] Word lists of Mantsi had previously been published in Kiyoshi Shimizu's (1978) South Bauchi survey, which first mentioned the existence of the language.
The Kir [Kyiir] and Laar peoples, who speak closely related but distinct languages, live just to the northeast of Mantsi village in the nearby villages of Kir and Laar, respectively.
[2] Mantsi belongs to the Kir branch of the South Bauchi languages.
It is most closely related to Kir and Laar, as shown by the lexical comparisons below.