Alphabetical classification

The alphabetical classification should not be confused with simple the alphabetical order .

the alphabetical order (of the letters), as its name indicates it, orders a Alphabet conventionally, for example with an aim of teaching methodical of this one. It thus relates to only Signe S. Of the Greek documents and Hebrew testifies that it was used there is more than two millenia; but not however as of the invention of the writing: all the inventories of library sumériens to date discovered, for example, draw up lists in Vrac of titles, not indexed even according to their only first letter (and, incidentally, not more by topic, which shows that none of these operations went from oneself).

the alphabetical classification (of words) constitutes an operation much more complex: it is not a question any more of once and for all ordering a fixed number of signs , but a quantity of Mot S various lengths, being able to include/understand several thousands of elements, even more. Although one saw of them some attempts under various latitudes and at various times (see Knuth, Sorting and Searching , Addison-Wesley, 1973), it was essential only starting from one dictionary due to Jean de Gènes named the Catholicon and published in 1286. This alphabetical order remained a long time also a purely European curiosity: until the middle of the XXe century, the dictionaries not-Westerners remained classified by topics or grammatical roots.

The alphabetical classification revolutionized the marketing activity in Occident. It became possible with him to work with lists of several hundreds - even thousands - names of customers, articles, suppliers, cities, subcontractors, creditors, debtors and correspondents various without more difficulty of research than on a disordered list of a score of names. Its effectiveness was going to be multiplied with the invention of the Imprimerie towards 1450, leading in the long term to the multiplication of Annuaire S, Lexique S and Dictionnaire S of consultation from now on very fast whatever their size. With traditional the contents will be able to be added thanks to him new and very effective research tools: the index.

History

-300, various Aegean Islands: lists indexed according to their only first letter.

135 : Greek papyruses including/understanding of the lists of taxpayers indexed according to their two first letters. Apollonius the sophist occasionally uses this indexing with two letters and sometimes even more in its Concordances on the poems of Homère .

630 : Étymologies ( Etymologiæ ) of Saint Isidore uses in a systematic way the indexings with one and two letters. By this organization which announces almost in a remote way that of future the databases (see also: Sorts), the index appears multiplying of effectiveness: the work indeed comprises 20 books and 448 chapters, and one however reaches quasi directly required information.

1286 : Jean de Gènes publishes the Catholicon , preceded by a foreword explaining its system of grading lengthily and which exhorts the reader to make the effort, in spite of its difficulty, to learn it. The passage of simple indices of two letters to a classification utilizing as many letters as necessary , and not always the same number, indeed asks for an important effort of abstraction, the more so as the method of sorting differs completely from that, then known better, of the numbers.

of 14th at the 16th century: the alphabetical classification is taught little by little everywhere in Europe. Significant fact: it is it primarily with adult having already a good formation, sometimes university.

1604 : first English dictionary using the alphabetical order, the Cawdrey : has table alphabetica' off the hardware usual English words . Donald Knuth points out that certain words do not appear there exactly in their place, but that these errors are more frequent at the beginning of the work than in the continuation of this one, which suggests that Robert Cawdrey assimilated itself progressively little by little the system of its work.

Notable fact: an Arab dictionary using itself the alphabetical order was found, but this experiment in the final analysis did not have a following day.

Principles

The basic principle consists in comparing two Mot S, character by character.

If N first characters are identical, the following is taken. If N - ième character differs, the order is established. Beyond the last letter of the one of the two words, the shortest word is regarded as coming in first.

It is thus advisable to correctly classify to know:

the order in which the letters of a given alphabet are classified, order which depends on historical rules differing from one language to another even if they use a very close alphabet;
the existence of Graphème S complexes (Binding S, Digraph S) to take into account (in a language, such digraph will count for a letter and will have its row, in such other, not).
the Exception S and the justification of those.

It is clear that one will not have to naively classify Louis IX before Louis VIII , even if I precedes V alphabetically.
less obvious is the rule than a French work naming XVe century goes with the letter Q and not X, and than its Italian equivalent will be classified not with Which nzième century, but with Qua ttrocento!
the rules of classification can vary according to the field considered: Doctor Martin will be listed in a directory with the letter M, but in catalog of films the Doctor Mabuse as the Doctor Jivago will be well with the letter D, the term of doctor belonging to the name of film itself.

Technique of the librarians

A manual classification is an operation of which time according to the number of works is in O (NR ²). As in an average library the order of magnitude of NR goes typically from 10.000 to 100.000, the librarians associate with each work a code of 3 letters (which are in general the three first of its title), and have thus to sort between them only the books of identical trigram, which are reduced for the majority to less than one hundred. The speed of the operation is increased thus considerably by it, even if it is necessary to treat one or two thousands of trigrams.

This operation also makes it possible to permanently reclassify the books during the operating hours of the library, including by several people at the same time, trigram by trigram at the same time.

Examples

has semi , Ba lance, drunk chock, C âlin

The binding œ (or E in O ) is to be regarded in French as a O followed by a E (two characters) for the alphabetical classification, whereas oe and œ has two entirely distinct roles in French:

moel it, mœu rs
coeff ficient, cœu R, coex istence

In first analyzes the accentuated characters, just as the capital letters, have the same alphabetical row as the fundamental character:

Marx , marx ism
payment , payment surface
rebel , rébelli one

If several words have the same alphabetical row, one tries to distinguish them between them thanks to the capital letters and with the accents (for the E , one with the order E, E, E, E ):

C alvados, C alvados
legitimates , legitimated
EP expensive, EP expensive

This double classification (without then with the accents) gives to the final one:

legitimates, legitimated, legitimate, legitimated

To note that the comparison of the accentuated characters is made with back then by beginning with the last letter:

raises , high

Alphabetical order in other languages

Among the languages using the Latin alphabet, the alphabetical order can differ:

In German, the Umlaut (“Ä”, “Ö”, “U”) is generally treated like the letters without umlaut, but it arrives for the lists of names that one regards them as the combinations “Ae”, “Oe” and “Ue”. The “ß” is generally ordered like “S”.
In Swedish, “W” is perceived like an alternative of “V” and not like a distinct letter. The Swedish alphabet uses moreover three vowels considered as distinct and placed at the end: “Å”, “Ä” and “Ö”. Same conventions are used in Finnois.
In Danish and Norwegian, the alphabet ends in “Æ”, “Ø” and “Å”. This last letter is sometimes comparable in “Aa”.
the Féringien has several additional letters: “Á”, “2D”, “Í”, “Ó”, “Ú”, “Ý”, “Æ” and “Ø”. The consonants “C”, “Q”, “W”, “X” and “Z” are not employed. By consequence, the alphabetical order féringien differs slightly from the traditional order of the Latin alphabet: IN Á B D 2D E F G H I Í J K L MR. NR O Ó P R S T U Ú V there Ý Æ Ø.
In Spanish, the order recommended by the Spanish royal Académie until in 1994 regarded “CH” and “L” as distinct letters, placed respectively after “C” and “L”. Since 1994, the Academy adopted the conventional use to place them after “CG” and “LK”. On the other hand, “Ñ” is always classified after “NR”. More details in the article Alphabetical classification in Spanish .
the Welsh has more complex rules: the combinations “CH”, “DD”, “FF”, “NG”, “L”, “pH” and “TH” are sometimes regarded as single letters, ordered after the first graphème of the combination, except for “NG”, classified after “G”. However, these combinations are not always regarded as single letters: for example, Welsh classifies the following words thus: LAWR, LWCUS, LLONG, LLOM, LLONGYFARCH. The last of these words, which juxtaposes “LLON” and “GYFARCH”, does not use letter “NG”.
In Dutch, combination “Ĳ” previously either was regarded as “Y”, or classified after this one, but at present is generally classified between “II” and “IK”, except for the proper names.
In Icelandic, “2D” follows “D” and “Þ” is added at the end of the alphabet.
In Polish, “Ą” follows “has”, “Ć” follows “C”, “Ę” follows “E”, “Ł” follows “L”, “Ń” follows “NR”, “Ó” follows “O”, “Ś” follows “S”, “Ź” and “Ż” follow “Z”.
In Czech and Slovak, the vowels accentuated (“Á”, “E”, “Í”, “Ó”, “O”, “Ú”, “Ů” and “Ý”) like certain consonants presenting a háček (“Ď”, “Ň” and “Ť”) are regarded as their homograph not accentuated; if two words differ from an accent on a vowel, the accentuated word is placed afterwards. “Č”, “Ř”, “Š” and “Ž” are regarded as letters distinct and placed after their homograph without háček. Moreover, “CH” is regarded as a letter with whole share, located between “H” and “I”. Into Slovak, “DZ” and “DŽ” are placed between “Ď” and “E”.
In Esperanto, the accented accentuated letters (“Ĉ”, “Ĝ”, “Ĥ”, “Ĵ”, “Ŝ” and “Ŭ”) is placed after the not accentuated versions.
In Rumanian, the accented accentuated letters (“Ă”, “Â”, “I”, “Ş” and “Ţ”) is distinct letters, placed after the not accentuated versions.
In Tatar, “ä” is regarded as “has”, “ö” like “O”, “U” like “U”, “í” like “I” and “ı” like “E”. “Ş” is associated with “HS”, “C” with “CH”, “Ñ” with “NG” and “Ğ” with “GH”.
In Croatian, Serb and other Slavic languages of the south, “Č” and “Ć” follow “C”, “DŽ” and “Đ” follow “D”, “NJ” follows “NR”, “Š” follows “S” and “Ž” closes the alphabet.
In Filipino, “NG” and “Ñ” is distinct letters.

Origins and history

The archaeological documents seem to indicate that the letters of the various alphabets were always taught in the same order - clean with each alphabet -, perhaps for reasons mnemotechnics. The order of the letters established by the linear Alphabet and the Alphabet phenician, for example, was more or less preserved by the alphabets which of it are derived.

The alphabetical order applied to the classification of the words is a very other concept and its use is not obvious, even when the classification of the letters of an alphabet is the consensus object.

The writing S alphabet ic, syllabic S or alphasyllabic S of the world equipped with an old story established all a classification of their graphèmes, task facilitated by the reduced number of signs. The logographic writings , as for them, in front of the big number of characters, could not follow simple rules. One thus finds many manners of classifying the Sinogramme S (cf Dictionnaires of sinogrammes ).

Order Levantine

The first alphabetical order, already very near to ours, is attested at the end of the Bronze Age, with the Semitic first alphabet, that of Ougarit, a wedge-shaped Abjad. It continued in another abjad without bond for the form but linguistically dependant, that of the Phénicien, from where the principal current alphabets result: Greek alphabet and its Misadventure S (Alphabet gotic, Cyrillic, Latin while passing by the Etruscan ), but also Aramean alphabet, syriaque, Hebrew, Arab, etc

It is that which, at the base of the Gematria, is indicated by the term of “order Levantine”, in which one finds, often dissimulated by evolutions clean with history of each alphabet and with modifications that one had to bring to them to make them ready to note the desired language (modifications “worsened” by the fact that the alphabets could be phonetically transmitted via very distant languages), the traditional classification (notation API)/ʔ/(Glottal stop, replaced by /a/ starting from the Greek ), /b/, /g/ (become /k/ noted by C as of the Latin ), /d/, /h/ (become /e/ starting from the Greek ), /w/ (become /f/ starting from Latin, resulting from the Greek Digamma), /z/ (replaced by /g/ then rejected at the end of the alphabet starting from Latin), etc

Certain alphabets even were entirely reordered for reason graphics in order to facilitate the training of it, like the Arabic alphabet (cf also Histoire of the Arabic alphabet and Arab Numération , the original order reappearing in numeration). For these writings, however, the choice of a coherent alphabetical order always remained a priority. Thus, the insertion of the new letter G /g/ Latin ─ resulting from a C /k/ modified (letter coming itself from the Γ /g/ marked gamma Greek /k/ by the Etruscans) ─ was done without deteriorating the alphabetical order: the new letter indeed replaced an useless Z in Latin, which, however, was reintroduced later at the end of the alphabet when it proved to be necessary to note Greek words, following the Y , another letter taken again to the Greeks.

Order sudarabic

In addition to the order Levantine, there are some another, for the writings derived from the linear Alphabet, known as order Sudarabique, so old but more limited to him in its representations. Attested into sudarabic (and in some shelves in Ougaritique found out of Ougarit, like that of Beth Šemeš), it was transmitted to the Ethiopian spelling-book, which results from this.

Its first ranks are the following (in Transcription of the Semitic languages): H , L , ḥ , m , Q , W , š , R , etc

Indian order

In India, and after in all the Alphasyllabaire S derived from the Brāhmī (Devanāgarī, and others writings of India, Alphabet Tibetan, Thai, etc) or which are inspired by it (like, in a remote way and after many repairs, the kana S Japanese), the classification is entirely re-examined: it is done in a rational way, the graphèmes being classified in lines according to their joint, initially the occlusive noting Phonème S pronounced at the bottom of the throat in first then while going up gradually towards the labial articulations then, finally, in last row as of the Sounding S, the whistling and the fricative last. In each line, one finds initially the consonant deaf then the deaf person aspired, sound, sound aspired then the nasal . The vowels are classified separately, often top of the list. It is obvious that, in the same way as for the order Levantine, of many reorganizations took seat, according to the languages.

Here for example first consonant ranks of the Devanāgarī (in Transcription of the Indian languages): K , KH , G , gh , ṅ , C , CH , J , jh , ñ , ṭ , ṭh , ḍ , ḍh , ṇ , etc

Greek alphabet and Latin

It is possible that the need for an alphabetical order appears only when one has something to order. It would seem, for example, that the alphabetical order started to be employed for the alphabets Latin and Greek by the scientists of Alexandria. For example, the “Collection of the words which are in Hippocrates”, allotted to Érotianus, uses the alphabetical order but not however in a rigorous way.

Concerning the Europe, the order which has seems it prevailed until the medium of the Moyen-âge was the classification set of themes, probably for religious reasons (the Bible uses such a system). The use of the alphabetical order, progressive, is perhaps related to a modification in the way of designing and of organizing the world at that time. The invention of the Imprimerie will give finally a blow of accelerator to such a use.

In fact, the Dictionary S and the Lexique S were probably the first works in Latin alphabet to use the alphabetical order. Donald Knuth mentions a dictionary dating from the beginning of the rebirth, indicating that the work contains many errors of classification of the words at its beginning and much less with the end, which suggests that the author had itself to familiarize himself slowly with his own system.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

The alphabetical classification offers a systematic method of search for a word in an enumeration. This is particularly adapted to the dictionaries, classifications of names or categories, directories, index and repertories.

Disadvantages

A possible reproach with the alphabetical classification is that it does not take account of the direction of the words or expressions which it arranges. Concepts or elements without common point are found juxtaposed, and on the contrary, of the elements concerning the same subject find themselves scattered. For example, by opening a dictionary randomly, one finds Ronin , Ronron and Ronsard . If a proximity of direction had been wished, the first could have been placed with Samurai or at least Japan , the second near Chat and the last with Poésie or the Pléiade . N the other hand, however, that which does not know at the beginning the direction of a word (and it is well for this purpose that a dictionary is often used) would be likely to know any more at what a place to seek it!

Consequences

the quoted disadvantages do not have of course the least importance with regard to the lists of patronyms in matter commercial, financial, administrative or tax. The alphabetical order is thus used in their case.

the classification of the encyclopedias, for its part, remains organized by topic in general, in order to avoid ceaseless flaky preparations with the reader who seeks to look further into a subject. These topics, of course, are however classified themselves alphabetically. The reader mitigates the difficulty in knowing where to document itself on word whose direction is unknown for him by using, in complement, a dictionary.

See too

Internal bonds

Alphabet
Alphabetical classification computerized
Alphabetical classification in Spanish

External bonds

Alphabets and diacritic

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