Alternative Alphabetical Arrangements

A list of as many orderings of the Latin alphabet as can be imagined and found interesting.

ARBCGIJLMNSUVWZDOEFTYHKPQX

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Grouped by homeomorphism (using for example the Myriad font).

ADOPQRBCEFGHIJKLMNSTUVWXZY

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Grouped by homotopy equivalence (ignoring serifs).

QZERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLMWXCVBN

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The QZERTY layout was used on Italian typewriters.

AZERTYUIOPQSDFGHJKLMWXCVBN

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The AZERTY keyboard layout used in French-speaking countries.

QWERTZUIOPASDFGHJKLYXCVBNM

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The QWERTZ keyboard used in German-speaking and Central and Eastern European countries.

QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM

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QWERTY keyboard layout.

JUMBLINGVEXTFROWZYHACKSPDQ

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A perfect pangram.

ABPRCGDOQEFLHXIJUVWKMNSZTY

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Grouped together by similarity (work in progress)

HLBCNOFMASPKTVGRYZIXWDUEJQ

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Based on the first letters of the chemical symbols of the periodic table of the elements.

THEQUICKBROWNFXJMPSVLAZYDG

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Ordering from a common pangram. From Sam Potts at McSweeney's.

AEIOUBCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXZY

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Vowels first. From Sam Potts at McSweeney's.

AZBYCXDWEVFUGTHSIRJQKPLOMN

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Start from both ends. From Sam Potts at McSweeney's.

ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

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Backwards. There's a song.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

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The standard ordering. There's a song. (I prefer Big Bird's version.)

Introduction

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This site lists alternative orderings of the Latin alphabet.

Orderings of the alphabet have been on my mind as I'm trying to learn to touch-type.

I did a search and didn't find much, so this aims to be the Web home of as many alphabetical orderings as can be imagined and found interesting.

There are 403,291,461,126,605,635,584,000,000 possible permutations of the 26-letter alphabet, so some selection is, ahem, in order.

Anyone wanting to submit an interesting alphabetical ordering can add it as a comment or send me mail. I can also make you an author of this blog so you can add a bunch. Just contact me. On Gmail, I'm kaicarver.

A few links related to alphabetical ordering:

http://ask.metafilter.com/35550/Why-A
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/alphabetical.html
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classement_alphab%C3%A9tique

Gilles Esposito-Farèse's pangram tester can be used to check that an alphabetical ordering is complete: