Thanks! That looks like it might be working correctly.

Now to ask a dumb question - how do I replace the hard-coded list here

say for sort { vcmp($a, $b) } ('ầm', 'ãm', 'ấm chè', 'ám số');

with an array like this:

ỷ : (1) to be fat (said of a pig); (2) to depend on
ỳ : inertia, state of inactivity, stay out, inert, sluggish
ỳ ạch : to toil, labor with difficulty
ỷ eo : reproach someone with something
ỷ lại : to depend, rely on others
ỷ thế : count on one’s power, one’s position, one’s influence
yêu nhau : to love each other, be in love
yêu quí : precious, valuable

read in from a text file using something like

open(IN,"test.txt");
@unsorted=<IN>;

Sorry, I know that's a dumb question, but I keep getting errors saying "Global symbol XYZ requires explicit package name ..." when I try to do this.

Thanks again!