(Apologies to the farmer's dog Bingo!) 

So the question I got from a customer the other day was an interesting one:

Does Windows support the Iroha ordering Kana? I did not see an option for it.

Windows doesn't support it, no. Though maybe I should say a bit more about this, it being a blog and all....

The basis of the Iroha ordering is a poem, one that is a nearly perfect pangram1 for Kana. The poem goes like this:

いろはにほへと
ちりぬるを
わかよたれそ
つねならむ
うゐのおくやま
けふこえて
あさきゆめみし
ゑひもせす

Now this is a common ordering that many Japanese students in Japan may have learned during their youth while learning the language, but it doesn't really get used much after that (the Gojūon ordering is favored).

In fact, after talking to some colleagues of mine who grew up in Japan the only real uses that came up were somewhat random, like the ones mentioned in that Wikipedia article I pointed to above:

  • Seat numbering in auditoriums/theaters (a good reason to learn the poem if you plan to live in Japan, huh?)
  • Go games in Japan which would have the letters at the top from right to left
  • The musical scale in Japanese (A B C D E F G becomes i ro ha ni ho he to)
  • A few other numbering/counting cases of particular items used in Japanese

So let's back up to the original question -- if it is used all of these places, then why is it not an alternate collation for Kana in Windows?

Well, first the simple reason -- it really hasn't been requested (or, if it has, the request has not made it here yet!).

Second is the fact that most of the cases where the ordering is used don't necessarily make sense in the context of an alphabetical ordering in a call to a function like CompareString.

Which leads to the more complex reason, in the definition of what I meant by request. I mean with an actual scenario, a time when the ordering would make sense (and make sense morally and ethically!) to use (and of course I would not count masking it easier to cheat on primary school exams in Japan when students own Windows Mobile devices as an acceptable reason, due to ethical concerns!).

Now would such an ordering actually be useful in some scenarios? It is an interesting problem to contemplate (the person who asked did not give a specific reason but might well have had one in mind). Or would the results be confusing at this point to speakers of Japanese?

 

1 - A pangram is a sentence that uses each and every letter an alphabet at least once; a perfect pangram is one that uses each and every letter only once.

 

This post brought to you by い (U+3044, a.k.a. HIRAGANA LETTER I)