ඍ — ri

In short

In our course the character comes 9th of 76: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are ඌ and ඎ.

How to type ඍ

• 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+0D8D 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 0D8D.
• Unicode code point: U+0D8D. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.

How it sounds

A syllabic “r” with an “i” shade — it sounds like “ru/ri”

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.

• ඓaiai▶
• ඖauau▶
• ඎriilong ri
• ඏlulu
• ඐluulong lu

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 times
  Adesope, 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 times
  Donovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.

Next

• The whole Sinhala alphabet59 letters in a single table
• Letter ඎ — long risound “rii”
• Letter ඏ — lusound “lu”
• Letter ඐ — long lusound “luu”
• Letter එ — esound “e”