Alphabeticcal order in list of references

hmdan
Dear Zotero,
Is it possible 'program' Zotero, so that letters come in the correct alphabetical order?
My problem is that being a Master's student of English, we have to write all our papers in English. However, some of the authors we refer to are Danish or Swedish.
I have just finished an exam paper where I, for example, referred to Øveraas. The Danish alphabet ends in xyzæøå, but Øveraas was placed between 'Munday' and 'Redaktionen'.
I hadn't realised this, and got a lower mark for not knowing the order of the alphabet.
In the paper I am working on presently, I will be using Øveraas again but I cannot move her till I am completely finished, and I am worried that I might forget it.
This is a problem.
Is there a way of 'programming' Zotero to know the order of the letters?
Very Best,
Hanne

Munday, Jeremy. Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. Fourth edition. London ; New York: Routledge, 2016.
Øveraas, Kirsten Marie. Ti faldgruber. Samfundslitteratur, 2014.
Redaktionen. ‘Begrænset genudnyttelse (artikler)’. In Den Store Danske. Gyldendal. Accessed 25 November 2019.
  • dstillman
    It's absurd that you were penalized for this — your professor should grade you on things that matter, not pedantic trivialities — but your professor is also arguably wrong here. You were assigned a paper in English, and a paper in English would not sort Ø after Z.

    Zotero follows standard Unicode sorting rules for the bibliography locale you're using. Specifically:
    [I]n the majority of Latin languages, ø sorts as an accented variant of o, meaning that most users would expect ø alongside o. However, a few languages, such as Norwegian and Danish, sort ø as a unique element after z.
    If you chose Danish as the bibliography locale, Ø would sort after Z, but you'd also get Danish words in the bibliography. Since that's not what you're supposed to submit, you correctly chose English, and Zotero correctly sorted Ø as a variant of O.

    This is how pretty much every localized program works, so there's no way to adjust it, and you should explain to your professor why Zotero works this way and ask that they refrain from grading you down for correctly following English sorting rules.
  • dstillman
    (The devil's-advocate argument is that English barely qualifies as a foreign language in Denmark and therefore Danish sorting rules should still apply. But that's just not how localized software works, so given that reality, and the value of using a tool like Zotero, it should be acceptable to adopt English sorting rules when writing in English.)
  • hmdan
    @dstillman:
    I did explain but his reaction was that I should then do my reference work manually, instead of relying on 'technical solutions that obviously do not work satisfactorily' (to quote him). It did not make matters any better that I tried to explain that I know very well that Jane Austen always spelled 'friendship' 'freindship' and that it was my spell check that had altered it. He was not impressed (an elderly proper English professor).
    But to get back to the matter in hand.
    (The devil's-advocate argument: the days of colonialism is over. We are living in a post-colonial time with more focus on the rights and liberties of smaller nations :-D )
    So, there is no way that I can set the order of the letters to a Scandinavian system.
    What a pity. Then there is just the hard way: break the citation link at the end.
    Thank you for your patience :-D
    (And I really do enjoy working with Zotero. I would never dream of stopping!)
  • adamsmith
    I'd go further than dstillman: your professor isn't arguably wrong, he's simply wrong. All English-language style guides I'm aware of that go into that level of details specify to sort the way Zotero does for English texts, e.g. the Chicago Manual (which I think you're following?) in section 16.67 . MLA definitely has the same rule, I believe so has APA. The idea that you should adjust the sorting rules to the country in which you happen to be when writing is absurd.

    FWIW, It would technically be possible to write a custom style that does Danish sorting and is otherwise in English (in technical terms, you'd copy the English terms into the beginning of the style and call it Danish), but that seems a waste of time.
  • bwiernik
    (Yes, APA and medical style guides follow customary English sorting rules. No reader of English outside of Denmark would ever think to look for ø after z. They would assume that’s an error.)
  • hmdan
    Peace :-D

    Thank you again for helping me with my questions :-D
  • mark
    Oh my god. My sympathies for having to deal with that professor and cheers for taking it in light spirits. Just know you're lightyears ahead by using Zotero instead of spending your brain cycles on petty pedantries.
  • hmdan
    Thank you :-D
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