Lingoflyඟ — sanyaka-ga-yanna
«sanyaka-ga-yanna» is a consonant of the Sinhala script, read as “nga”. Half-nasal “ng” in one syllable: a glottal hum before the “ga”. For example, in the word “ළඟ” (ḷanga) — close. The Sinhala alphabet has 59 letters in total, and this character can be played right here. The five half-nasal letters are a mark of Sinhala. Neither Sanskrit nor Tamil has them. It appears, for example, in the word “ළඟ” (ḷanga) — near.
In short
| Character | ඟ |
| Name | sanyaka-ga-yanna |
| Sound | nga |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 24th of 76: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ඞ and ච, appears in 51 words of this site.
How to type ඟ
- 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+0D9F 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 0D9F.
- Unicode code point: U+0D9F. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
Half-nasal “ng” in one syllable: a glottal hum before the “ga”
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.
The character in the “five half-nasal letters — a mark of sinhala” group
One letter for a nasal shade plus a consonant: ඟ, ඦ, ඬ, ඳ, ඹ. Sanskrit has nothing of the kind, nor do the neighboring Tamils — this is what makes Sinhala Sinhala.
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 «sanyaka-ga-yanna» it is “nga”, as in the word “ළඟ” (ḷanga)), 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 ඟ read?
As “nga” — it is a consonant of the Sinhala script. Half-nasal “ng” in one syllable: a glottal hum before the “ga”. For example, in the word “ළඟ” (ḷanga) — close.
What is the letter ඟ called?
Sanyaka-ga-yanna. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Sinhala script: it is called “sanyaka-ga-yanna” and reads as “nga”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.