ය — ya-yanna
«ya-yanna» is a consonant of Sinhala, the “the Sinhala script” script, read as “ya”. The syllable “ya” (y + a). For example, in the word “යනවා” — to go. The Sinhala alphabet has 76 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. It appears, for example, in the word “ආයුබෝවන්” — hello.
In short
| Character | ය |
| Name | ya-yanna |
| Sound | ya |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 50th of 76: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ඹ and ර, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How it sounds
The syllable “ya” (y + a)
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.
- යනවාyanavāto go
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
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 «ya-yanna» it is “ya”, as in the word “යනවා”), 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 ය read?
As “ya” — it is a consonant of the “the Sinhala script” script. The syllable “ya” (y + a). For example, in the word “යනවා” — to go.
What is the letter ය called?
Ya-yanna. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Sinhala script: it is called “ya-yanna” and reads as “ya”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.