Bonan phonology has been heavily influenced by Tibetan. Consonants possess a [±aspirated] contrast. Initial consonant clusters of mostly falling sonority are present in native words, as are heavy diphthongs, though the content of both is heavily restricted. The possible word-initial consonant clusters in Bonan are [mp, nt, nt͡ɕ, ntʂ, ŋk, tʰχ, χt͡ɕ, rt͡ɕ, lt͡ɕ, ft, fk, ʂp, ʂk].
Ñantoq Baoan has six vowels /a, e, ə, i, ɵ, u/, with long counterparts for all except /ə/.
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Alveolo-palatal | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | k | ||||||
| voiced | b | d | g | ɢ | ||||||
| Affricate | voiceless | t͡s | t͡ɕ | |||||||
| voiced | d͡z | d͡ʑ | ||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʂ | ɕ | χ | h | |||
| voiced | ʑ | |||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||