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The is a Japanese ordering of kana, so it is loosely a Japanese "alphabetical order". The "fifty" (''gojū'') in its name refers to the 5×10 grid in which the characters are displayed. Each kana, which may be a hiragana or katakana character, corresponds to one sound in the Japanese language. As depicted at the right using hiragana characters, the sequence begins with あ (''a''), い (''i''), う (''u''), え (''e''), お (''o''), then continues with か (''ka''), き (''ki''), く (''ku''), け (''ke''), こ (''ko''), and so on for a total of ten rows of five. Although nominally containing 50 characters, the grid is not completely filled, and, further, there is an extra character added outside the grid at the end: with 5 gaps and 1 extra character, the current number of distinct kana in a syllabic chart in modern Japanese is therefore 46. Some of these gaps have always existed as gaps in sound: there was no ''yi'' or ''wu'' in Old Japanese, and ''ye'' disappeared in Late Old Japanese, predating the kana; the kana for ''i'', ''u'' and ''e'' double up for those phantom values. Also, with the spelling reforms after World War II, the kana for ''wi'' and ''we'' were replaced with ''i'' and ''e'', the sounds they had developed into. The kana for syllabic ''n'' (hiragana ん) is not part of the grid, as it was introduced long after ''gojūon'' ordering was devised. (Previously ''mu'' (hiragana む), was used for this sound). The ''gojūon'' contains all the basic kana, but it does not include: *versions of kana with a ''dakuten'' such as が (''ga'') or だ (''da''), or kana with ''handakuten'' such as ぱ (''pa'') or ぷ (''pu''), *smaller kana, such as the ''sokuon'' (っ) or ''yōon'' (ゃ,ゅ,ょ). The ''gojūon'' order is the prevalent system for collating Japanese in Japan. For example, dictionaries are ordered using this method. Other systems used are the ''iroha'' ordering, and, for kanji, the radical ordering. ==History== The ''gojūon'' is an ancient convention, originating in the character ordering in Sanskrit, as well as a means for expressing the ''hansetsu'' (''fanqie'', sound indication) of Chinese characters. The monk Kūkai introduced the Siddhaṃ script, which being a Brahmic script used the Sanskrit ordering of letters, to Japan in 806 on his return from China. Buddhist monks who invented katakana chose to use the word order of Sanskrit and Siddham, since important Buddhist writings were written with those alphabets.〔(Japanese katakana ) (Omniglot.com)〕 In an unusual set of events, although it uses Sanskrit organization (grid, with order of consonants and vowels), it also uses the Chinese order of writing (in columns, right-to-left). The order of consonants and vowels, and the grid layout, originates in Sanskrit ''shiksha'' (''śikṣā'', Hindu phonetics and phonology), and Brāhmī script, as reflected throughout the Brahmic family of scripts.〔Daniels & Bright, ''The World's Writing Systems''〕〔〔(1.1.5. What is the origin of the gojuuon kana ordering? ), (sci.lang.japan FAQ )〕 The Sanskrit was written left-to-right, with vowels changing in rows, not columns; writing the grid vertically follows Chinese writing convention. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gojūon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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