diff --git a/taglib/toolkit/tstring.cpp b/taglib/toolkit/tstring.cpp
index be22c9c0..258e1fcf 100644
--- a/taglib/toolkit/tstring.cpp
+++ b/taglib/toolkit/tstring.cpp
@@ -49,14 +49,6 @@ namespace
 {
   using namespace TagLib;
 
-  inline String::Type wcharByteOrder()
-  {
-    if(Utils::systemByteOrder() == Utils::LittleEndian)
-      return String::UTF16LE;
-    else
-      return String::UTF16BE;
-  }
-
   inline size_t UTF16toUTF8(
     const wchar_t *src, size_t srcLength, char *dst, size_t dstLength)
   {
@@ -191,9 +183,9 @@ String::String(const wstring &s, Type t)
     // This looks ugly but needed for the compatibility with TagLib1.8.
     // Should be removed in TabLib2.0.
     if (t == UTF16BE)
-      t = wcharByteOrder();
+      t = WCharByteOrder;
     else if (t == UTF16LE)
-      t = (wcharByteOrder() == UTF16LE ? UTF16BE : UTF16LE);
+      t = (WCharByteOrder == UTF16LE ? UTF16BE : UTF16LE);
 
     copyFromUTF16(s.c_str(), s.length(), t);
   }
@@ -209,9 +201,9 @@ String::String(const wchar_t *s, Type t)
     // This looks ugly but needed for the compatibility with TagLib1.8.
     // Should be removed in TabLib2.0.
     if (t == UTF16BE)
-      t = wcharByteOrder();
+      t = WCharByteOrder;
     else if (t == UTF16LE)
-      t = (wcharByteOrder() == UTF16LE ? UTF16BE : UTF16LE);
+      t = (WCharByteOrder == UTF16LE ? UTF16BE : UTF16LE);
 
     copyFromUTF16(s, ::wcslen(s), t);
   }
@@ -781,7 +773,7 @@ void String::copyFromUTF16(const wchar_t *s, size_t length, Type t)
     length--;
   }
   else
-    swap = (t != wcharByteOrder());
+    swap = (t != WCharByteOrder);
 
   d->data.resize(length);
   if(length > 0) {
@@ -821,7 +813,7 @@ void String::copyFromUTF16(const char *s, size_t length, Type t)
     length -= 2;
   }
   else
-    swap = (t != wcharByteOrder());
+    swap = (t != WCharByteOrder);
 
   d->data.resize(length / 2);
   for(size_t i = 0; i < length / 2; ++i) {
@@ -835,6 +827,9 @@ void String::copyFromUTF16(const char *s, size_t length, Type t)
   }
 }
 
+const String::Type String::WCharByteOrder
+  = (Utils::systemByteOrder() == Utils::BigEndian) ? String::UTF16BE : String::UTF16LE;
+
 }
 
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
diff --git a/taglib/toolkit/tstring.h b/taglib/toolkit/tstring.h
index 3fc20053..8b739882 100644
--- a/taglib/toolkit/tstring.h
+++ b/taglib/toolkit/tstring.h
@@ -539,6 +539,13 @@ namespace TagLib {
      */
     void copyFromUTF16(const char *s, size_t length, Type t);
 
+    /*!
+     * Indicates which byte order of UTF-16 is used to store strings internally.
+     *
+     * \note \e String::UTF16BE or \e String::UTF16LE
+     */
+    static const Type WCharByteOrder;
+
     class StringPrivate;
     StringPrivate *d;
   };