MySQL & physical record order: FIFO, LIFO or what?

I'm having what seems a very weird problem with MySQL

Am I correct in concluding that MySQL, if not given an
order by clause, orders its result set in the order it
deems best as opposed to the physical order of the
records?

Maybe I should mention that my table has some indices
on it, in case that has something to do with it.

In this table the physical order of the rows is
meaningful. When I select some rows without specifying
an 'order by', they come out in a certain order and
that order isn't FIFO, i.e., the order of insertion.

When I delete these rows and reinsert them in reverse
order, they come out in the same order as before! 

When I delete them and reinsert them in the same order
as before, they still come out in the same order! 

Read on if you want more information.

This is an application for a translator and
interpreter organization's membership directory. The
table is a junction table that resolves an M-M
relationship:  there are members, there are languages,
and there are 
member_languages. The latter table has columns
member_id, source_language_id, target_language_id, and
some other stuff that needn't concern us.

The members are supposed to rank their language
combinations in order of strength. That's why the
order is an issue. Maybe I should add another column
called strength_factor, an ENUM field with values one
through 10, and sort on that?

David Mintz
Spanish Interpreter, US District Court
Southern District of New York
Web Design & Hosting http://dmintzweb.com/
Personal http://panix.com/~dmintz/

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