European ordering rules

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When lists of names or words need to be ordered, but the context does not define a particular single language or alphabet, the European ordering rules, or the EOR, provide a way to put them in sequence. The ordering rules consist of 4 normative levels.

Level 1 sorts the letters. The following latin letters are concerned by this level, in order:

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z þ

Level 2 is where different types of the same letters are storted. Level 2 defines the following order of diacritics, in order:

The acute accent (á)
The grave accent (à)
The breve (ă)
The circumflex (â)
The hacek (háček) (š)
The ring (å)
The diaeresis (ä)
The double acute accent (ő)
The tilde (ã)
The dot (ż)
The cedilla (ş)
The ogonek (ą)
The macron (ā)

Level 3 makes the distinction between capital letters and small letters. As in Polish and polish.

Level 4 is about spaces and other minor signs. This level makes the distinction between MacDonald and Mac Donalds, its and it's.

An informative Level 5 is about the typographical shape. For example whether the text is cursive, normal or fat.

The Greek alphabet has the following order:

α β γ δ ε Ϝ Ϛ ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π Ϟ ρ σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω Ϡ

The Cyrillic alphabet has the following order:

а ӑ ӓ ә ӛ ӕ б в г ғ ҕ д ђ ҙ е ӗ є ж ӝ җ з ӟ s ӡ и ӥ і ї й ј к қ ӄ ҡ ҟ ҝ л љ м н ң ӊ ҥ њ о ӧ ө ӫ п ҧ р с ҫ т ҭ ћ у ў ӱ ӳ ү ұ ф х ҳ һ ц ҵ ч ӵ ҷ ӌ ҹ ҽ ҿ џ ш щ ъ ы ӹ ь э ю я ҩ Ӏ

The order for the three alphabets is:

Latin alphabet
Greek alphabet
Cyrillic alphabet

The Georgian and the Armenian alphabet have not yet been included in the first version of ENV 13710. However, they are covered in CR 14400:2001 "European ordering rules - Ordering for Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Georgian and Armenian scripts"

[edit] See also

Unicode collation algorithm

[edit] References

Hansson, Roger; Lindgren, Carl Göran; Ljung, Heléne; Lundén, Thomas. Språk och skrift i Europa. SNS Förlag. (2004) ISBN 91-7150-936-4
Küster, Marc Wilhelm: Geordnetes Weltbild. Die Tradition des alphabetischen Sortierens von der Keilschrift bis zur EDV. Eine Kulturgeschichte. Niemeyer (2006) ISBN 10: 3-484-10899-1. Written by the editor of ENV 13710, it discusses in chapter 17.4 the genesis and the contents of the EOR. Cf. also [1], in particular also [2]