Fortescue reconstructs the phoneme inventory of Proto-Eskimo-Aleut as follows:
| Labial | Alveolar | Velar | Uvular | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | palatalized | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | (nʲ) | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | tʲ | k | q |
| voiceless | b | d | dʲ | ɡ | ɢ | |
| Affricate | c | sʲ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | x | χ | ||
| voiced | v | ð | ɣ | ʁ | ||
| Lateral fricative | (ɬ) | |||||
| Approximant | l | j | ɰ | |||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | œ | ə | ʌ |
| Open | æ | a | ɑ |