අ, n. The first letter of the Alphabet. It varies bightly in pronunciation, depending sometimes on the meaning or derivation and sometimes on the consonants with which it is combined. It is (1) the clear, distinct sound obtained by shortening ආ ah; (2) the sound of a in negative or miracle. In initial syllables the sound is generally the first of these; the second arises from the dropping of the voice in the unaccented syllables. It is written only when it is the initial letter of a word, but is pronounced after every consonant to which no other vowel is attached, or where it is not suppressed by the sign ්, as කරනවා, karanavā, the final vowel අ, which is long, alone being written;කරන් karan, the vowel අ after න being suppressed by the sign ්.

අ වර්‍ණ, n. pl. the vowels අ and ආ: අයන්න, ආයන්න.

අ ව්‍යභිචාර, a. not-inconstant, faithful (to the marriage vow &c.), අවිශ්වාසනොවන, විශ්වාසවු.

අත පැන් වත්කරනවා, or වක්කරනවා, v. to pour water into the hand: B. often done to confirm a vow or ratify the marriage ceremony.

අනක්‍ඛාත, a. P., (අන් priv. for අ before a vowel, අක්‍ඛාත), unsaid, undeclared, undefined, නො කියනලද; ep. of Nirvāna, නිවන.

අන්, prefix, privative for අ before a vowel: see අ.

අනු ද්‍රැතය, n. mus. half a druta, semi-quaver, time of a short vowel.

අර්‍ධ ප්‍රාණාක්ෂරය, n. semi-vowel,

අර්‍ධ මාත්‍රය, n. half a moment; half a short vowel, අඩමත.

අර්‍ධ ස්වරය, n. half sound, අර්‍ධ ශබ්දය, semi-vowel, අර්‍ධප්‍රාණාක්ෂරය.

අල්, a. consonantal, viz. having the vowel suppressed, leaving only the consonant.

අල්අකුර, n. vowelless consonant, as ක් in මක්.

අල්කරනවා, v. t. to unvocalise by suppressing the vowel; in writing, to add the අල් mark (/?/ or /?/) for that purpose.

අව කීර්‍ණ, a. coarsely pounded; badly scattered or confused, ඉතා වියවුල්වූ; violated (as a vow), කඩකරනලද.

ආ, n. The second vowel of the alphabet, sounded like a in 'calm' or 'charm' its non-initial form is (ා) following the consonant it vocalizes, as කා Kā.