ඞ is originally a letter from the Sinhalese language which represents a “ṅa” sound. You’ll also find the shape of the letter ඞ looks like a crewmate from the video game Among Us, so sometimes it is also called the among us letter.
What Is “ඞ” In Sinhalese Language?
Sinhalese, also known as Sinhala, is the native language of the Sinhalese people, the largest ethnic group in Sri Lanka. It’s the official and national language of Sri Lanka.
In the Sinhala language, ඞ is pronounced as “n̆ga” ([ⁿɡa]), similar to the English “ng” sound in “song” followed by a “ga”, but pronounced as a single syllable.
ඞ is a prenasalized consonant, which is a sequence of a nasal and an obstruent (like a plosive or a voiced stop) where the two components behave as a single sound. And ඞ is a combination of the nasal sound “ඞ” and the obstruent sound “ග”.
ඞ character is used in specific Sinhala words where the “n̆ga” sound is required.
What Is Among Us Game?
Among Us is a popular online video game where players are astronauts in space. They are divided into two groups: Crewmates and Impostors. Crewmates do tasks and try to figure out who the Impostors are. Impostors pretend to be Crewmates but secretly try to eliminate them. Players talk and vote on who they think the Impostors are.
The game became super famous in 2020, especially on platforms like Twitch and YouTube. It’s available on many devices and even has a virtual reality version. The game and its characters have inspired many internet jokes and memes.
Today’s Use of ඞ
ඞ is rarely used in today’s Sinhala language. Nowadays, it’s mainly used to represent a crewmate character in the game Among Us.
When you encounter ඞ in today’s writings, it’s usually a typing mistake of “ඩ”: someone accidentally pressed ඞ (Unicode U+0D9E) by mistake when they really want to write ඩ (Unicode U+0DA9).
Why Does the Unicode Character ඞ Represent an ‘Among Us’ Crewmate?
No, ඞ is not an ‘Among Us’ crewmate Unicode character, it just represents a crewmate from ‘Among Us’ as this text symbol resembles it by coincidence.
