Who decided upon the order the letters of the alphabet should go in, and when?

I first looked at your question as the origin of the English alphabet, rather than the order, and I became curious, so I went to Wikipedia. The English alphabet came from the Latin alphabet, which evolved from the Greek alphabet, which originated from a modification to the Phoenician alphabet...and on it goes. I would suggest going to 'Wiki', typing in "English alphabet" and you'll see what I'm talking about. I think it will explain the origin and order of our alphabet. (Whew...how many times have I used the word 'alphabet'?)

I think the order is a way to remember the letters. Let's face it, it would be difficult to remember 26 characters if they were just given in random order. Remember the song when you were a kid..."A B C D E F G"...that song helped young children remember all of the letters and the order of those letters was/is very important.

This Site Might Help You.

RE:

Who decided upon the order the letters of the alphabet should go in, and when?

Also, why did they feel the need to put them in any particular order?

Do you know, I never thought about that before. By and large we follow the Greek alphabet, which has omicron for our o and omega where our z is. The only thing I can think of that we use z, like x, so little and so put them at the end. But then we use y and w and v and u's quite a lot, so that doesn't really make sense. Calling all philologists to our aid!

are you referring to the english alphabet or the first alphabet (non-pictograph)? We know the guy's name, but because the alphabet wasn't invented when he was born and named by his parents, we are not sure of the proper spelling.

Can't you see the practical applications of alphabetical order?