Like Krim, to which it is closely related, Bom is a Southern Bullom language, of which Sherbro is the most widely spoken representative, although speakers of these languages consider them to be distinct from one another.
Like Krim, to which it is closely related, Bom is a Northern Bullom language. Krim is sometimes considered to be a dialect of the same language, but speakers of these two languages consider them to be distinct from one another.