Sorting and German (was: Sorting and Volapük)

From: Otto Stolz <Otto.Stolz_at_uni-konstanz.de>
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:46:53 +0100

Happy New Year,

on Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 4:27 PM,
Michael Everson<everson_at_evertype.com> wrote: > Volapük sorts [...] ä a
separate letter after a, ö separate after o,
> and ü separate after u.
> does anyone know if any other language treats ä/ö/ü in the same way?

Am 2012-01-01 16:54, schrieb Peter Cyrus:
> German does both,

Not really.

According to DIN 5007,
German features two different sort orders:
• In lists of personal names, Ä, Ö, Ü may be sorted
   as AE, OE, and UE, respectively; this order is
   mainly used in telefone directories.
• In dictionaries and encyclopedias, Ä, Ö, Ü are sorted
   as A, O, and U, respectively.

As encyclopedias may well comprise personal names,
the scope of the former scheme is not well defined,
imho, and I stick to the latter one, whenever I have
to sort a list.

In both schemes, ß is sorted as SS.

In both schemes, true A (or AE, respectively) goes before Ä,
iff two sort keys are otherwise identical; likewise for
Ö, Ü, and ß.

In Austria, a third scheme is used in telefone directories
(but not in the yellow pages): Here, Ä, Ö, and Ü, are
indeed treated as distinct letters, to go between A and B,
O and P, and U and V, respectively; and ß is treated as a
distinct pair of letters, ro go between SS and ST.

Best wishes,
   Otto Stolz
Received on Sun Jan 01 2012 - 11:53:07 CST

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