Because of the limitations of the language's scripts, its phonology is not well understood.
Its consonants included at least stops /p/, /t/ and /k/, sibilants /s/, /ʃ/ and /z/ (with an uncertain pronunciation), nasals /m/ and /n/, liquids /l/ and /r/ and fricative /h/, which was lost in late Neo-Elamite. Some peculiarities of the spelling have been interpreted as suggesting that there was a contrast between two series of stops (/p/, /t/, /k/ as opposed to /b/, /d/, /g/), but in general, such a distinction was not consistently indicated by written Elamite.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | k | ||
| voiced | b | d | g | |||
| Sibilant | voiceless | s | ʃ | |||
| voiced | z | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Liquid | central | r | ||||
| lateral | l | |||||
| Fricative | h | |||||
Elamite had at least the vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/ and may also have had /e/, which was not generally expressed unambiguously.
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | |
| Open | a |
Roots were generally CV, (C)VC, (C)VCV or, more rarely, CVCCV (the first C was usually a nasal).