This paper examines the nature of the apparent consonant clusters in prevocalic position in Squliq Atayal. Although the literature on Squliq suggests that there is a vowel between sounds that are transcribed as consonant clusters in prevocalic position, quite a number of such vowels cannot be readily perceived, and nor could vowel structure be discerned on the waveforms in an acoustic analysis. Based on the segmental distribution of the consonants, the paper argues that these consonants belong to separate syllables, which implies that Squliq does not tolerate syllable onsets composed of true consonant clusters. The paper further discusses the case of prevocalic consonant-glide sequences, and suggests that the onglides are presumably not in the onset either. Squliq Atayal is therefore a language that disallows complex onsets in spite of the seemingly prevocalic consonant cluster pronunciations.