Someone else has suggested that for a book with a
largely English-(native-)speaking readership --
especially if this one is an elementary textbook
-- use what would seem natural for an English
speaker --and if the article is retained in the
index, sort under its letter (e.g., "de la Renta"
under D). (This is contrary to advice from some
authorities, but is based on the notion that the
"foreign" articles are not recognized as such by
all English readers. And
double-posting/cross-referencing may be
advisable.) Some other comments interspersed.

At 7/3/2009 10:02 AM, solana35 wrote:
>Hi, all.
>
>1) People names in Spanish: I'm having doubts
>about sorting Oscar de la Renta. If I'm reading
>CMS and Mulvaney correctly, it would seem that
>it should be "Renta, Oscar de la." But neither
>source gives a specific example of a name with
>*two* particles, and doing it this way seems
>really weird to me. My first impulse is to put
>"de la Renta, Oscar," sorted on R. Can anyone
>advise? I didn't find it in MW, either.
>
>2) Geographical names in Spanish: Mulvaney says
>that for geographical names starting with
>non-English articles, the preliminary term is
>alphabetized and not inverted. So would "el
>Rastro" (a market in Madrid) come under E, and
>"la Patagonia" appear under L? I would be
>tempted to put them—and look them up—under R and
>P, respectively. I would also expect that the
>article remain in front of the main word. Do
>markets count as "places"? What about castles
>and waterfalls? As for La Patagonia, I didn't
>find it in MW—under (P)atagonia or (T)he Patagonia.

For the others, my *guess* is to retain the
article (and sort under it), but for "Patagonia"
omit it. I think we English would seldom say "The Patagonia".


>3) Names of events in Spanish: Would an event,
>like "las Posadas" (Mexican tradition of
>re-enacting with neighbors Mary's and Joseph's
>search for an inn), go under L or P?

This seems like a title, such as "La Prensa", and
I would retain its "las" and sort under L.

Joel


>The book I'm indexing is an elementary Spanish
>textbook, so the dominant language for the index
>is English, even though the people, place, and event names are in Spanish.
>
>Can anyone recommend a book on indexing in Spanish?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Mary