Community Wishlist Survey 2023/Wiktionary/Different alphabetical sortings according to languages

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Different alphabetical sortings according to languages

  • Problem: For the time being, there is only one alphabetical order for a given writing system (used in Indexes, Categories, etc), even though alphabetical order can vary depending on a language. For example, in German o and ö are treated as one letter, but in Turkish first comes o and only then ö. Therefore the order: offensiv – öffentlich – offiziell – Offizier – öffnen – Öffnung – oft – öfter – oh is absolutely fine for German, but in Turkish: ocak – oda – ödemek – odun – ödünç – oğlan – öğle – öğrenci – oğul is completely wrong (it should be: ocak – oda – odun – oğlan – oğul – … – ödemek – ödünç – öğle – öğrenci), yet it is the only order that is found in all automatically prepared alphabetical lists. This way all Wiktionaries make fools of themselves, showing that they do not even know the correct alphabetical order. This problem affects each and every Wiktionary.
  • Proposed solution: There should be a way to sort lists alphabetically in different ways, depending on the language in question.
  • Who would benefit: All users of Wiktionaries, both editors and – first of all – their readers.
  • More comments: As I was informed by Peter Bowman, the problem has already been raised several times (most recently in 2019, and again in 2020), but never solved. There seem to be a ready solution already available (see Phabricator tickets below).
  • Phabricator tickets: phab:T30397#1039468
  • Proposer: Maitake (talk) 17:32, 27 January 2023 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Discussion

  • I very much support this, even just using the Latin alphabet for this example comparing German and Turkish barely scratches the surface. What about letters that exist in one language using the same script but not another? For example, þ being used in Icelandic but not French, or Ғ being used in Kazakh but not Russian. This is definitely something that ought to be fixed, as it's quite the oversight. SalomeCzapiewski (talk) 19:44, 28 January 2023 (UTC)Reply[reply]
  • A dictionary with entries displayed in the right alphabetical order? Seems reasonable 😉 Noé (talk) 07:57, 30 January 2023 (UTC)Reply[reply]
  • "There should be a way to sort lists alphabetically in different ways".. what lists, where ? I'm assuming lists generated by the MW software, but it's not specified here. —TheDJ (talkcontribs) 15:28, 5 February 2023 (UTC)Reply[reply]

Voting