The Barbacoan languages may be related to the Páez language. Barbacoan is often connected with the Paezan languages ; however, Curnow shows how much of this proposal is based on misinterpretation of an old document of Douay. Other more speculative larger groupings involving Barbacoan include the Macro-Paesan "cluster", the Macro-Chibchan stock, and the Chibchan-Paezan stock.
Pasto, Muellama, Coconuco, and Caranqui are now extinct. Pasto and Muellama are usually classified as Barbacoan, but the current evidence is weak and deserves further attention. Muellama may have been one of the last surviving dialects of Pasto — Muellama is known only by a short wordlist recorded in the 19th century. The Muellama vocabulary is similar to modern Awa Pit. The Cañari–Puruhá languages are even more poorly attested, and while often placed in a Chimuan family, Adelaar thinks they may have been Barbacoan. The Coconucan languages were first connected to Barbacoan by Daniel Brinton in 1891. However, a subsequent publication by Henri Beuchat and Paul Rivet placed Coconucan together with a Paezan family due a misleading "Moguex" vocabulary list. The "Moguex" vocabulary turned out to be a mix of both Páez and Guambiano languages. This vocabulary has led to misclassifications by Greenberg, Loukotka, Kaufman, and Campbell, among others. Although Páez may be related to the Barbacoan family, a conservative view considers Páez a language isolate pending further investigation. Guambiano is more similar to other Barbacoan languages than to Páez, and thus Key, Curnow et al., Gordon, and Campbell place Coconucan under Barbacoan. The moribundTotoró is sometimes considered a dialect of Guambiano instead of a separate language, and, indeed, Adelaar & Muysken state that Guambiano-Totoró-Coconuco is best treated as a single language. The Barbácoa language itself is unattested, and is only assumed to be part of the Barbacoan family. Nonetheless, it has been assigned an ISO code, though the better-attested and classifiable Pasto language has not.
Loukotka (1968)
Below is a full list of Barbacoan language varieties listed by Loukotka, including names of unattested varieties. ;Barbacoa group
Pius - extinct language once spoken around the Laguna Piusbi, in the Nariño region.
Iscuandé - extinct language once spoken on the Iscuandé River in the Nariño region.
Tumaco - extinct language once spoken around the modern city of Tumaco, department of Nariño.
Guapi - extinct language once spoken on the Guapi River, department of Cauca.
Cuaiquer / Koaiker - spoken on the Cuaiquer River in Colombia.
Telembi - extinct language once spoken in the Cauca region on the Telembi River.
Panga - extinct language once spoken near the modern city of Sotomayor, Nariño department.
Nulpe - extinct language once spoken in the Nariño region on the Nulpe River.
Cayápa / Nigua - language spoken now by a few families on the Cayapas River, Esmeraldas province, Ecuador.
Malaba - extinct language once spoken in Esmeraldas province on the Mataje River.
Yumbo - extinct language once spoken in the Cordillera de Intag and the Cordillera de Nanegal, Pichincha province, Ecuador. The population now speaks only Quechua.
Colima - extinct language once spoken on the middle course of the Daule River, Guayas province.
Cara / Caranqui / Imbaya - extinct language once spoken in the province of Imbabura and on the Guayllabamba River, Ecuador. The population now speaks Spanish or Quechua.
Sindagua / Malla - extinct language once spoken on the Tapaje River, Iscuandé River, Mamaonde River, and Patia River, department of Nariño, Colombia.
Muellama - extinct language of the Nariño region, once spoken in the village of Muellama.
Pasta - extinct language once spoken in Carchi province, Ecuador, and in the department of Nariño in Colombia around the modern city of Pasto, Colombia.
Mastele - extinct language once spoken on the left bank of the Guaitara River near the mouth, department of Nariño.
Quijo - once spoken on the Napo River and Coca River, Oriente province, Ecuador. The tribe now speaks only Quechua.
Mayasquer - extinct language once spoken in the villages of Mayasquer and Pindical, Carchi province, Ecuador. The present population speaks only Quechua.
;Coconuco group
Coconuco - language spoken by a few families at the sources of the Cauca River, department of Cauca, Colombia.
Guamíca / Guanuco - extinct language once spoken in the village of Plata Vieja in Colombia.
Guambiana / Silviano - spoken in the villages of Ambató, Cucha and partly in Silvia.
Totaró - spoken in the villages of Totoró and Polindara.
