Vowels
 

In English we have vowels listed in alphabetical order (a,e,i,o,u.), In all the learn Japanese language books they are listed differently (a,i,u,e,o.). Is there a particular reason or system to this?

Yes, in Japanese the vowel order is different so the listing reflects this order.

Thanks for replying, but I don't understand why they are listed in that particular order; is it because of frequency of use or something like that?

Why is it AEIOU in English?

Because they are listed alphabeticaly; for no other reason I can think of.

Wiki tells that it is the influence of Sanskrit.
Gojūon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
If you can know the character ordering system in Sanskrit ,you will find the answer.

SO what do you think the answer is regarding Japanese, then?

I think, without any proof, that it has something to do with Japanese verb conjugation.

All Japanese verbs in dictionary form end with "u". So "u" is in the middle of aiueo.

It is just my guess.

It is arbitrary, just like English, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, etc..

vowel order is aiueo
consonant order is kstnhmyrwn'

Arbitrary.

The order used to be i, ro, ha, etc. This came from a poem: Iroha - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greywolf, each writing system has its own order for listing its letters/characters. In English the vowels happen to be in the order a e i o u. The Japanese syllabary happens to start a i u e o. You say that the reason is that we write the vowels in alphabetical order- well, in Japanese they write the vowels in the established order for the Japanese syllabary.

As for why the vowels are in that particular order, well, we could ask the same thing about the Roman alphabet, why does e come after a in the list of vowels? Why not before a, or after u? Why does b come after a? At some point in history it was standardised in that way, just as in Japan the order of the vowels was standardised as a i u e o.