[Bug localedata/22550] es_ES locale (and other es_* locales): collation should treat ñ as a primary different character, sync the collation for Spanish with CLDR

["hector.monacci at gmail dot com" <sourceware-bugzilla at sourceware dot org>]

https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=22550

Héctor M. Monacci <hector.monacci at gmail dot com> changed:

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                 CC|                            |hector.monacci at gmail dot com

--- Comment #6 from Héctor M. Monacci <hector.monacci at gmail dot com> ---
Hi everyone.

I am a native Spanish speaker born in Argentina. I have a University degree in
Grammar. I have worked 4 years teaching Spanish grammar at Buenos Aires
University.

Up to 1994, Spanish dictionaries around the world included 2 "letters", namely
"ch" and "ll", which together with "ñ" where meant to have a unique position in
the alphabet. As independent letters, CH was located always after C, LL was
located always after L, and Ñ was located always after N.

So this was the OLD (pre-1995) correct Spanish sorting order:

CH:
1. caca
2. caco
3. cacha

LL:
1. lana
2. luna
3. llanto

Ñ:
1. pena
2. penoso
3. peña

This was very different since this ACUERDO entered into force back in 1994:
http://www.rae.es/consultas/exclusion-de-ch-y-ll-del-abecedario

This was an ACUERDO (i.e., an AGREEMENT). Every Academy of the Spanish
Language, the one in Spain, the one in Argentina (Academia Argentina de
Letras), and the two dozen other Spanish Language Academies, signed this
Agreement.

The official Spanish Language alphabet, since then, has no unique place for CH
and LL, now just considered digraphs instead of letters.

This is how you order the same words all over the Spanish speaking word since
1994:

CH:
1. caca
2. cacha
3. caco

LL:
1. lana
1. llanto
3. luna

Ñ:
1. pena
2. penoso
3. peña

As you can see, only the Ñ remains in the same situation as before the
Agreement of 1994: i.e., as an independent letter to be sorted always after N.

Of course, all paper dictionaries you may find, printed before 1995, still
carry the old letter situation. Of course, people who learnt to read and left
school before 19954 may be less aware of the change.

But there is no doubt about it.

Even the US Academia de la Lengua Española signed that Agreement, as you can
see here:
http://www.rae.es/la-institucion/politica-panhispanica/x-congreso-madrid-1994

So, since 1994 Spanish is less different from the rest of the languages that
use the latin alphabet, in the sense that we have only one special letter that
affects alphabetic ordering: namely, Ñ.

Accented vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú and ü) DO NOT change alphabetic ordering. They
are treated as ordinary vowels (a, e, i, o, u).

The Ñ letter still does. CH doesn't. LL doesn't.

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