They are a little-known group of the tropical and subtropical Old World, the roughly thirty species being divided fairly equally between Africa and Asia.

They are fairly drab birds, brown or grey above (sometimes with dark streaks) and whitish below.

[2][3] The name of the genus is derived from the Javanese prinya, the local name for the bar-winged prinia.

[4] A molecular phylogenetic study of the Cisticolidae published in 2013 found that the rufous-vented grass babbler did not lie within the clade containing the other prinias.

[5] Based on this analysis the rufous-vented prinia and the closely related swamp grass babbler were moved to the reinstated genus Laticilla in the family Pellorneidae.