Sani is spoken in Shilin, Luliang, Luxi, Shizong, Yiliang, Malong, Luquan, and Mile counties by about 120,000 speakers.

Their language is distinct from the closely related Samei, whose speakers call themselves Sani [sa21 ni53].

[1] Another group known as the Sa 撒 (autonym: Sani 撒尼) lives in Qiubei County (Yunnan 1960).

[3] Yunnan (1960) considers it to be similar to Sani of Shilin County.

Pelkey (2011:378) defines two innovations that Sani and Axi both share with each other.