Northern Zhuang languages form a dialect continuum with Northern Tai varieties across the provincial border in Guizhou, which are designated as Bouyei, whereas Southern Zhuang languages form another dialect continuum with Central Tai varieties such as Nung, Tay and Caolan in Vietnam.

Noting that both the Zhuang and Thai peoples have the same exonym for the Vietnamese, kɛɛuA1,[4] from the Chinese commandery of Jiaozhi in northern Vietnam, Jerold A. Edmondson posited that the split between Zhuang and the Southwestern Tai languages happened no earlier than the founding of Jiaozhi in 112 BC.

For the list of the 36 Zhuang variants below from Zhang (1999), the name of the region (usually county) is given first, followed by the specific village.

Later research by the Summer Institute of Linguistics has indicated that some of these are themselves multiple languages that are not mutually intelligible without previous exposure on the part of speakers, resulting in 16 separate ISO 639-3 codes.

It has been used for writing songs, and more recently in public communications encouraging people to follow official family planning policy.

B b D d G g C c By by Ƃ ƃ Ƌ ƌ Gv gv Y y Gy gy M m N n Ŋ ŋ Ny ny My my F f S s H h Ŋv ŋv V v L l R r A a I i U u E e O o Ɵ ɵ Ə ə Ɯ ɯ Ƨ ƨ Ɜ ɜ Ч ч Ƽ ƽ Ƅ ƅ B b D d G g C c By by Mb mb Nd nd Gv gv Y y Gy gy M m N n Ng ng Ny ny My my F f S s H h Ngv ngv V v L l R r A a I i U u E e O o Oe oe (from Ɵ) Ae ae (from Ə) W w (from Ɯ) Z z J j X x Q q H h