5.2 Sort Order

Sorting conventions vary widely across languages and locales. Some languages even have different rules for collating the same character. Sorting ideographs is different than sorting phonetic scripts and is based on either the form or pronunciation of characters.

A form-based system sorts first on the character's primary radical and then on the number of strokes to write the character (stroke count). A pronunciation-based system sorts first on ideograph pronunciation and then on stroke count.