Maltz has revealed some words which I don't want to keep secret from you any longer. I'm sending them in individual messages to keep the subject line separated.

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Perhaps the verb patlh "be ranked, have a status, be graded" will work.  The form patlhmoH would mean "rank, assign status, sort" and also "compare."  When used with the "compare" meaning, of course, the object of the verb is always plural.  The implication that if two (or more) things are ranked or sorted, they're ranked in comparison to one another.

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Regarding the verb "compare", Lieven asked whether this would work:

A-mey patlhmoH C "C sorts his A" (for instance, his socks)

Okrand said:

In general, yes.  I suppose you could say this if A means "socks," but that would imply that the person doing the sorting likes or values some socks more than some others.

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“Be sorted” is patlh, which also means “have a rank of.” So “sort” is patlhmoH, also meaning “rank.”  The object of patlhmoH is not a list (as a whole) but the things in the list, the things to be ranked or sorted.

Sal and ghIr cannot be used for sort order.

To sort a list of English words alphabetically (or reverse alphabetically), use constructions like wa’DIch a, HochDIch z or wa’DIch z, HochDIch a.

For a list of Klingon words, it would be wa’DIch bay, HochDIch qaghwI’, wa’DIch qaghwI’, HochDIch bay.

You’d use similar constructions to sort by date or whatever. I’m assuming that, for your purposes, you wouldn’t sort by anything other than something that can be put in a specific order – that is, not sorting by color, for example (maybe not such a good example, but I think you know what I mean).

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