[2]: 1143 Varieties listed by Mason (1950):[3] Alternate names of Puinave are Puinabe, Puinavis, Uaipunabis, Guaipunavos, Uaipis.

[3] Puinave is sometimes linked to other poorly attested languages of the region in various Macro-Puinavean proposals, but no good evidence has ever been produced.

[4] Ongoing work on Puinave by Girón Higuita at the University of Amsterdam will hopefully clarify the situation.

When the high vowel /i/ is in coda position, it is also realized as a glide [j], but in onset position, it is realized as a palatal stop matching in nasality with the nucleus, either [ɟ] or [ɲ], in the same way that /m n/ match the following vowel's nasality.

Puinave distinguishes four surface (phonetic) tones: two simple (H and L) and two contour (HL and LH); these are analyzed as being composed of two phonemic tone values, H and L. Girón Higuita and Wetzels (2007) note that speakers seem to associate H with prominence, rather than increased duration or intensity (the typical correlates of prominence in languages like English).