ශ — taaluja-sa-yanna
«taaluja-sa-yanna» is a consonant of Sinhala, the “the Sinhala script” script, read as “sha”. Soft “sha”. The Sinhala alphabet has 76 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. One of the three “s/sh” letters of the script. In speech ශ and ෂ sound alike; only spelling tells them apart. It appears, for example, in the word “ශීත කාලය” — winter.
In short
| Character | ශ |
| Name | taaluja-sa-yanna |
| Sound | sha |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 54th of 76: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ව and ෂ, appears in 102 words of this site.
How it sounds
Soft “sha”
The character in the “aspirates and sanskrit letters” group
Misra sinhaala. The aspirates (ඛ ඝ ඡ ඣ ඨ ඪ ථ ධ ඵ භ) sound exactly like their plain pairs in live speech — the difference has remained only in writing. Reading them is a must; writing them is not.
Words with this character
- ශීත කාලයśīta kālayawinter
- විශ්රාමිකයාviśrāmikayāretiree
- විශ්වවිද්යාලයviśvavidyālayauniversity
- ප්රකාශන පත්රයprakāśana patrayacustoms declaration
- විදේශිකයාvidēśikayāforeigner
- අශ්වයාaśvayāhorse
- ආචාරශීලීācāraśīlīpolite
- ප්රශ්නයක් නෑpraśnayak nǣno harm done
- රංග ශාලාවraṁga śālāvatheatre
- සිනමා ශාලාවsinamā śālāvacinema
- විනෝදාංශයvinōdāṁśayahobby
- විශ්වාසයviśvāsayafaith
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 ශ read?
As “sha” — it is a consonant of the “the Sinhala script” script. Soft “sha”.
What is the letter ශ called?
Taaluja-sa-yanna. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Sinhala script: it is called “taaluja-sa-yanna” and reads as “sha”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can ශ be confused with?
One of the three “s/sh” letters of the script. In speech ශ and ෂ sound alike; only spelling tells them apart. 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.