Most scholars who have addressed the problem of categorizing Philippine languages have related Umiray Dumaget (DgtU) most closely to other languages spoken by Negritos in northeastern Luzon, languages in the Cordilleran microgroup. Reid suggests (Possible non-Austronesian lexical elements in Philippine Negrito languages, by Lawrence A. Reid, in Oceanic Linguistics 33:37 - 72, 1994) that Umiray Dumaget is not a Cordilleran language but rather that it is relatable to Bikol, a Central Philippine language. While the evidence from phonological changes and the pronominal system does not compel us to favor one subgrouping over the other, the lexical data do show that DgtU is most closely related to the Central Philippine languages. Culturally, we can infer that Umiray Dumaget results from very early contact between the non-Austronesian-speaking Negrito population and speakers of that variety of Central Philippine that evolved into Tagalog, Bikol, and the Bisayan languages. A consequence of this grouping is that any inherited lexeme that Umiray Dumaget shares with non-Central Philippine languages must be assigned to a higher level.