It is a Trans–New Guinea language that forms an independent branch of that family in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005).

[2] This language family is also called Ingkipilu in a classification by Anton Moeliono.

Pawley and Hammarström (2018) do not consider there to be sufficient evidence for Uhunduni to be classified as part of Trans-New Guinea, though they do note the following lexical resemblances between Uhunduni and proto-Trans-New Guinea.

[4] Ross (2005) lists the pronouns as: Iru is an inclusive dual.

The following basic vocabulary words of Damal (Uhunduni) are from the Trans-New Guinea database,[5] citing Voorhoeve (1975).