Is there a sort method that can be specified for register sorts that 
will ignore unicode quote marks (“‘’”) in the same way that primes ("') 
are ignored. This was asked in 2010 
(http://www.mail-archive.com/ntg-context@ntg.nl/msg51348.html) and not 
answered. It is still a problem.

Is there a sort method that can be applied as well to sorted lists to do 
this?

    \definesorting[Sort][Sorts]
    \starttext
    \placelistofSorts[criterium=all]
    \placeindex[n=1,method=default]
    \index{"Hope" is the thing with feathers}
    \index{Hope is the thing with feathers}
    \index{Hop is the thing with feathers}
    \index{“Hope” is the thing with feathers}
    \Sort["Hope" is]{"Hope" is the thing with feathers}
    \Sort[“Hope” is]{“Hope” is the thing with feathers}
    \Sort[Hope is]{Hope is the thing with feathers}
    \Sort[Hop is]{Hop is the thing with feathers}
    \Sort[Dope is]{Dope is the thing with feathers}
    \Sort[Rope is]{Rope is the thing with feathers}
    \stoptext

-- 
Rik