European ordering rules

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"

ee also

* Unicode collation algorithm

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 [http://www.budabe.de/grammatologie] , in particular also [http://www.budabe.de/grammatologie/geordnetes_weltbild_toc.pdf]

External links

* [http://anubis.dkuug.dk/CEN/TC304/EOR/eorhome.html European Ordering Rules] , ENV 13710 - a "European Pre-Standard"