問イ、問ロ、問ハ、問ニ...

[Bekkichan]

I've seen these things popping up in a few places while I was googling something else, and I'm interested in learning exactly what they are...

Am I right in deducing that it's a sort of numbering system used in written tests and whatnot? All the examples I saw had them in the above order (問イ、問ロ、問ハ、問ニ) - is that correct, and if so, how does the sequence continue? And how are they read? And finally, in what sort of situations/contexts are they used as opposed to any other methods of numbering?

Or am I totally off and it has nothing to do with numbering items at all?

Sorry if this is too many questions at once, but I'm curious now as to what these are and how they're used... Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[JimmySeal]

Here ya go:
Iroha - Wikipedia

It's the old ordering for the syllables of the hiragana writing system. Labeling test questions and such with them is just like our practice of using A. B. C. to label things, except that they sometimes use the current ordering アイウエオカキ… as well.

 

[Bekkichan]

Ooh, that's really interesting Thanks so much!