According to Ethnologue, there are four distinct but mutually intelligible varieties, sometimes considered separate languages: Lave (Brao proper), Kru’ng (Kreung), and Kavet (Kravet), the latter spoken by only a couple thousand.
Sidwell (2003) also lists four communities of speakers, three of which are in Cambodia.
Laveh (Lave, Rawe): spoken in Attapeu Province, Laos south of the capital city of Attapeu. Laveh is the official designation given by the Laotian government.
Sidwell (2003) suggests the possibility of a total of 50,000 speakers, while Bradley (1994:161) gives an estimate of 35,000. All estimates below are drawn from Sidwell (2003:30).
Laos: The 1995 Laotian census places the Laveh population at 17,544.
Cambodia: The Asian Development Bank gave an estimate of 29,500 speakers as of the early 2000s.
Vietnam: About 300 Brau live in Đắc Mế village, Bờ Y commune, Ngọc Hồi district, Kon Tum province (Đặng, et al. 2010:112).[4] Parkin (1991:81) also estimates several hundred Brao in Vietnam.
Thailand: Parkin (1991:81) estimates a Brao population of 2,500 in Thailand.
^Keller, Charles E. (April 1999). "Brao-Krung Phonology"(PDF). Mon-Khmer Studies. 31. Archived from the original(PDF) on 9 June 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
^Đặng Nghiêm Vạn, Chu Thái Sơn, Lưu Hùng. 2010. Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam. Hà Nội: Thế Giới Publishers.
Sidwell, Paul (2003). A Handbook of comparative Bahnaric, Vol. 1: West Bahnaric. Pacific Linguistics, 551. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.
Keller, C. E. (1976). A grammatical sketch of Brao, a Mon–Khmer language. Grand Forks, N.D.: Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session. OCLC: 2915938
