Bug Report: Windows Sinhala Wijesekara Keyboard Layout maps long "Oo" vowel incorrectly

Duminda Kuruppu 20 Reputation points
2026-07-08T07:06:38.65+00:00

Windows 11
Native Sinhala Keyboard Layout (IME)

There is a legacy character mapping bug in the native Windows Sinhala Wijesekara keyboard layout. When attempting to type the long "Oo" vowel character, the driver erroneously outputs two separate Unicode entities: the base letter ඔ (U+0D92) followed by a detached Hal Kirima ් (U+0DCA), rendering visually as ඔ්.

The correct output should be the unified, singular Unicode character ඕ (U+0DA2).

Impact: Because the driver splits the vowel into two characters, it breaks text rendering on standard fonts (causing the modifier to detach), causes spell-checkers to flag the word as incorrect, and completely breaks search functionality in Windows and web browsers when users try to look up words containing this vowel.

Steps to reproduce:

Add the native Sinhala Wijesekara keyboard in Windows Language Settings.

Open Notepad and switch to the Sinhala keyboard.

Attempt to type the long "Oo" vowel character using the standard layout shortcut.

Observe that two Unicode points are generated (ඔ + ්) instead of the correct ඕ character.

Expected Behavior: The keyboard driver should natively map this keystroke to the single Unicode character ඕ (U+0DA2), matching the official ICTA (Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka) national standards.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Input and language
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Answer accepted by question author
Lychee-Ng 28,565 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-07-08T11:36:03.4466667+00:00

Hi Duminda Kuruppu,

I can totally understand your concerns. If the built-in Sinhala Wijesekara keyboard layout outputs a separated Unicode sequence instead of the expected single character, that can affect more than how the character looks. From your descriptions, it clearly also affects spelling checks, searching, and text consistency across apps, which is important for daily Sinhala typing.

That said, I need to note that Microsoft Q&A is just a community support forum. Your post may attract others who share your ideas, but it's unlikely to be reviewed by the engineering team. In addition, the contributors here, as fellow users, cannot interfere with product development, or escalate issues directly to any internal teams.

Since this involve Windows keyboard layout mapping itself, it's usually not something that can be corrected through user-configurations. The best path is to report it through Microsoft’s official feedback and support channels, where the teams managing the service can review it:

  1. Press Win + F to open Feedback Hub > submit under relevant category.
  2. I recommend including the same details you provided here, including:
    1. Your Windows 11 version and build number from Win + R > winver
    2. Screenshots showing how it affects rendering, spell-checking, or search.

Thank you for taking the time to share, and I know this is probably not the direct response you were hoping for. But Q&A contributors simply do not have visibility into backend system to proceed further. Still, your report is very detailed and should be useful for investigation if submitted through the correct channel.


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