ෑ — dirga edayya
«dirga edayya» is diacritic of Sinhala, the “the Sinhala script” script, read as “-aae”. Long open “a”: කෑ — “kaae”. The Sinhala alphabet has 76 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. On a carrier the character looks like this: කෑ. It appears, for example, in the word “සුබ උදෑසනක්” — good morning.
In short
| Character | ෑ |
| Name | dirga edayya |
| Sound | -aae |
| What it is | diacritic |
| On the carrier | කෑ |
In our course the character comes 62nd of 76: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ැ and ි, appears in 123 words of this site.
How it sounds
Long open “a”: කෑ — “kaae”
The character in the “pili — fourteen vowel signs” group
Shown on ක (ka): on its own a vowel sign is not written. From කා the “k” has to be subtracted in one’s head — and the very vowel the sign means remains. One of them, kombuva (ෙ), is written to the left of the letter although it sounds after it.
Words with this character
- සුබ උදෑසනක්suba udǣsanakgood morning
- නෑnǣno
- මට තේරෙන්නේ නෑmaṭa tērenne nǣI don't understand
- රෑrǣnight
- කෑෂ්kǣṣcash
- බෑග් එකbǣg ekabag
- වැඩ කරන්නේ නෑvæḍa karannē nǣnot working
- කමක් නෑkamak nǣno problem
- මට අරින්න බෑmaṭa arinna bǣI can't open it
- කෑමට පස්සේkǣmaṭa passēafter a meal
- මට හොඳ නෑmaṭa honda nǣI feel bad
- උදේ කෑමudē kǣmabreakfast
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, 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 ෑ read?
As “-aae” — it is diacritic of the “the Sinhala script” script. Long open “a”: කෑ — “kaae”.
What is the letter ෑ called?
Dirga edayya. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Sinhala script: it is called “dirga edayya” and reads as “-aae”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.