ැ — edayya
«edayya» is diacritic of Sinhala, the “the Sinhala script” script, read as “-ae”. Open “a”: කැ — “kae”, like the “a” in “cat”. The Sinhala alphabet has 76 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. On a carrier the character looks like this: කැ. It appears, for example, in the word “නැවත කියන්න” — say it again, please.
In short
| Character | ැ |
| Name | edayya |
| Sound | -ae |
| What it is | diacritic |
| On the carrier | කැ |
In our course the character comes 61st of 76: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ා and ෑ, appears in 535 words of this site.
How it sounds
Open “a”: කැ — “kae”, like the “a” in “cat”
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
- නැවත කියන්නnævata kiyannasay it again, please
- බැංකුවbæṁkuvabank
- ටැක්සිṭæksitaxi
- වැඩvæḍawork
- නැවුම්nævumfresh
- මිල ටැගයmila ṭægayaprice tag
- මේක ගණන් වැඩියිmēka gaṇan væḍiyithis is expensive
- කැෂියර් එකkæṣiyar ekacheckout
- වැඩියෙන්væḍiyenmore
- සැහැල්ලුයිsæhælluyilight (weight)
- කැඩිලාkæḍilābroken
- නවාතැනnavātænahousing
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 “-ae” — it is diacritic of the “the Sinhala script” script. Open “a”: කැ — “kae”, like the “a” in “cat”.
What is the letter ැ called?
Edayya. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Sinhala script: it is called “edayya” and reads as “-ae”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.