Lingoflyඓ — ai
«ai» is a vowel of the Sinhala script, read as “ai”. The diphthong “ai”, like “i” in “ice”. The Sinhala alphabet has 59 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. It appears, for example, in the word “ඓතිහාසික” (aitihāsika) — historic.
In short
| Character | ඓ |
| Name | ai |
| Sound | ai |
| What it is | a vowel |
In our course the character comes 15th of 76: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ඒ and ඔ.
How to type ඓ
- On a phone: add the Sinhala keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+0D93 and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 0D93.
- Unicode code point: U+0D93. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
The diphthong “ai”, like “i” in “ice”
The character in the “two diphthongs — and four from sanskrit” group
The diphthongs ඓ ඖ (“ai”, “au”) are not common. The last four (ඍ ඎ ඏ ඐ) are met almost never. These are the Sanskrit syllabic “r” and “l”, left in the table for completeness.
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 — 59 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 ඓ read?
As “ai” — it is a vowel of the Sinhala script. The diphthong “ai”, like “i” in “ice”.