Norquest additionally reconstructs six onsets suggesting consonant clusters: *pl, *fj, *lj, *ɾj, *tʃʰw, *ŋ̊w.
The clusters with a glide as a second member may have been coarticulated consonants: palatalized *fʲ, *lʲ, *ɾʲ, labialized *tʃʰʷ, *ŋ̊ʷ, while *pl may have arisen from a sesquisyllable *p-l. Norquest also reconstructs six bisyllabic root shapes: Pretonic syllables are later lost in all Hlai languages, but in these six combinations, they trigger in some languages conditional developments of the tonic syllable's onset consonant, allowing them to be distinguished in reconstruction.
Some disyllabic forms have medial consonants beginning with three penultimate vowels (*u-, *i-, *a-; the last of which is default).
The short vowels *i, *ɯ, *u, *ə, *o and long *əː only appear in roots with a final consonant (Norquest 2007:330).
The following table gives the reflexes of the onset consonants in the Hlai languages, as well as Norquest and Ostapirat's reconstructions: The symbol ↓ indicates here a lowered tone on the following vowel in those Hlai languages where tone split has taken place; this normally occurs following earlier voiced consonants.