Their languages both belong to the Austronesian family, over 500 languages which are spoken by the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, the Philippines, New Zealand, New Guinea, and other islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
依照語言學家的分類，雅美族與巴丹人的語言屬於「南島語族」。目前使用該語族的人散佈在太平洋及印度洋，包括台灣、菲律賓、新幾內亞、紐西蘭、夏威夷等地。