A..B..C..D..

[timidwiner]

Why is the alphabet in that order?

[beweypm]

Yo

[nwmadden]

The simple answer is that the English(Roman) alphabet is derived from the Greek Alphabet (and older alphabets) that are also (with a few expections) in that order. There's a huge famility tree of alphabets that evolve though time. You can trace the letter A back to an Egyptian pictogram representing an Oxs' Head which was pronounced Alef (Subsequently becoming the greek letter: Alpha). As well as the letter B back to the Semitic word 'Beth' meaning House (becoming the greek letter beta). Alef-beth, Alpha-beta, Alphabet. (Get it? :) So this order of letters or phonograms could surely go back as far as 3000 years to ancient egypt. However I don't think someone came up with the order A, B, C, D... because it has any special significance. In answer to your question, as letter pronunciations and alphabets evolve and change through time and geography, I would say that this order is purely abitary, almost there at random. Unlike Japanese the japanese 'alphabet' (A, I, U, E, O, KA, KI, KU, KE, KO) which is so systematic that surely people did get their heads together and reorganize it to be sensible. ** I'm no expert though. I truely apologise if my guesswork prooves to be totally incorrect ** :)