ළ — murdhaja-la-yanna
«murdhaja-la-yanna» is a consonant of Sinhala, the “the Sinhala script” script, read as “lla”. Hard “la” with the tongue curled back. For example, in the word “මාළු” — fish. The Sinhala alphabet has 76 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. The pair to ල. English has no such sound: the tongue moves back, and the sound comes out darker. It appears, for example, in the word “කොළඹ” — Colombo.
In short
| Character | ළ |
| Name | murdhaja-la-yanna |
| Sound | lla |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 58th of 76: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are හ and ෆ, appears in 206 words of this site.
How it sounds
Hard “la” with the tongue curled back
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- මාළුmāḷufish
The character in the “twenty consonants of “pure sinhala”” group
Shuddha sinhaala is what native words are written with. Having learned these twenty, you read almost any sign: everything else in the script is needed for Sanskrit and Pali borrowings.
Words with this character
- කොළඹkoḷambaColombo
- මාළුmāḷufish
- එළවළුeḷavaḷuvegetables
- කෙළින්keḷinstraight ahead
- ළඟḷanganear
- වෙළඳපොළveḷandapoḷamarket
- යාළුවාyāḷuvāfriend
- ළමයාḷamayāchild
- මුළු ගාන කීයද?muḷu gāna kīyada?how much in total?
- ටිකක් අඩු කරන්න පුළුවන්ද?ṭikak aḍu karanna puḷuvanda?can you make it cheaper?
- හුළඟhuḷangawind
- වලාකුළvalākuḷacloud
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «murdhaja-la-yanna» it is “lla”, as in the word “මාළු”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 76 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Sinhala character ළ read?
As “lla” — it is a consonant of the “the Sinhala script” script. Hard “la” with the tongue curled back. For example, in the word “මාළු” — fish.
What is the letter ළ called?
Murdhaja-la-yanna. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Sinhala script: it is called “murdhaja-la-yanna” and reads as “lla”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can ළ be confused with?
The pair to ල. English has no such sound: the tongue moves back, and the sound comes out darker. Similar characters are best studied side by side and deliberately compared: learned on different days, they stay separate and get mixed up at their first meeting inside a word.