Discussion Groups / English Usage / September 2010

So evidently I can be forgiven for not knowing about the change.

treated as

Oh, that doesn't contradict what I (and WikiP) said.  (And I checked the
RAE dictionary entries before posting, even.)  CH and LL are still
considered a letter, and still have their place (sequentially) in the
alphabet -- only the collating sequence has been changed, presumably to
avoid difficulties for foreigners and (especially) computers.

The Spanish-language Wikipedia puts this more clearly (s.v. "Idioma
española"):

El español se escribe mediante una variante del alfabeto latino con la
letra adicional "ñ" y los dígrafos "ch" y "ll", consideradas letras del
abecedario desde 1803 (cuarta edición del DRAE), debido a que representan
un solo sonido, distinto de las letras que lo componen.

Así, el alfabeto español está formado por 27 letras y 2 digrafos:

   * a, b, c, ch[194] , d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll[195] , m, n, ñ, o,
p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z.

Durante el X Congreso de la Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española
(Madrid, 1994), se acordó adoptar el alfabeto latino universal, en el cual
ch y ll no son letras independientes, lo que afecta a la alfabetización de
las palabras que contengan esas dos letras, que desde entonces deben
aparecer ordenadas en el lugar que les corresponde dentro de la c y la l.
Sin embargo, de acuerdo con las Academias, esta reforma «afecta
únicamente al proceso de ordenación alfabética de las palabras, no a la
composición del abecedario, del que los dígrafos ch y ll siguen formando
parte».[196]

My (not too flowing, first-draft quality) translation:

Spanish is written using a variant of the Latin alphabet with the
additional letter "ñ"and the digraphs "ch" and "ll", considered letters
of the alphabet since 1803 (fourth edition of the DRAE), due to the fact
that they [each] represent a single sound, differing from the letters
that they are made of.

Thus, the Spanish alphabet is made up of 27 letters and two digraphs:

 * a, b, c, ch[194] , d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll[195] , m, n, ñ, o,
p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z.

During the 10th Congress of the Association of Academies of the Spanish
Language (Madrid, 1994), it was agreed to adopt the universal latin
alphabet, in which ch and ll are not independent letters, which affects
the alphabetization of words that contain those two letters, which since
then must appear sorted in their corresponding places withing the letters
c and l.  Nevertheless, in agreement with the Academies, this reform
"only affects the process of alphabetization of words, not the makeup of
the alphabet, of which the digraphs ch and ll continue to be a part."[196]

The reference [196] is:
DPD, Ed. Santillana, 2005, pág. 5-6.

(DPD = Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas)

There's a Mr. Cantor in the lobby who would like to have a word with
you.

Not if the questions are of finite length (and drawn from a countable
alphabet).

In Northern Ireland phone books (and probably the rest of the UK) M', Mc
and Mac are all treated as though they are Mac. Normal alphabetic
sorting is then used. For instance:

 McEwen
 Macey
 McFaddef  [sic]
 McFadden