That's a bit weird. I've never heard of this problem before.

The most common thing that would cause strange issues like this is processor speed. The original CD version of the game doesn't work right on fast modern processors, and you need to slow down your processor with a program like CPUGrabber in order to get things to work. The most common symptom in that case is that the Twon-ha will not move when you ride it. I don't think I've ever heard of Talan being unable to speak as a result though. Also, GOG's version supposedly fixes the processor speed problem, so I doubt this is the cause of your issue.

One other thing that might cause trouble is your dual-core processor. Make sure the game is running on only one of your cores. You can do this by entering task manager once the game is running, find the game in the list, right-click and look for "set affinity" in the menu. If more than one CPU is checked, uncheck the others so it's only running on one CPU. See if that helps. If it does, you'll have to do that every time you run the game, unfortunately, but there are a few freeware programs you can download to permanently set affinities for games.

Lastly, are there any other programs running in the background? There's a remote chance that something like an antivirus program is interfering with the game.

If the problem persists, could you give us some more details about your system? Graphics card and sound card (onboard or discrete card) might be the most relevant. Also, a little more detail on the problem... does the opening sequence play correctly? With the Talan speaking and everything? Is it only when you run up to a Talan in-game that you get the problem?

Oh also, one other user reported that when talking to Talan, he actually had to click the mouse each time he wanted to advance the dialogue. That is, Cutter would say something, then the game would wait until he clicked before proceeding to the Talan's response. Could this be what's happening for you? It would make the game seem like it had stalled when it was actually just waiting for you to click.