Proto-Talbas phonology
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/ | /n/ | 
| |||||
| Plosive | Voiced | /b/ | /d/ |
| ||||
| Plain | /p/ | /t/ | /k/ | /q/ | /ʔ/ |
| ||
| Ejective | /tʼ/ | /kʼ/ | /qʼ/ |
| ||||
| Affricate | /ts/ |
| ||||||
| Fricative | /f/ | /s/ | /h/ | |||||
| Approximant | /l/ | /j/ |
| |||||
| /i/ |
| |
| /e/ | /o/ | |
| /a/ | ||
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/ | /n/ |
| |||||
| Plosive | Voiced | /b/ | /d/ |
| ||||
| Plain | /p/ | /t/ | /k/ | /q/ | /ʔ/ |
| ||
| Ejective | /tʼ/ | /kʼ/ | /qʼ/ |
| ||||
| Affricate | /ts/ |
| ||||||
| Fricative | /f/ | /s/ | /h/ | |||||
| Approximant | /l/ | /j/ |
| |||||
| /i/ |
| |
| /e/ | /o/ | |
| /a/ | ||
ej, je, eje, ije → i / not stressed
aj → e / not stressed
ahi, ahe → aj
ehi → ej
ohi, ohe → oj
h → ∅ / C_
h → ʔ
p t → b d / {m,n,l}_
tʼ kʼ qʼ → t k q / ! #_
f → p / _V
f → s / otherwise
{p, t, k} → ∅ / ! _V or #_CV
{m,n} → assimilate POA / ! _V
Case suffixes were simpler in Proto-Talbas: accusative was -ye, and genitive was -hi. These applied equally to nouns and pronouns. Due to sound changes, the two suffixes merged, so new accusative suffixes were formed from the accusative pronouns. Furthermore, sali "her" sounded too much like sali "baby", so was replaced with pronouns derived from lime, which had previously meant "human" but had come to mean "woman" or "girl".