# Accented operators using babel

I'm using the es-minimal option in babel which, among other things, disables accents on operators. Since I want accented operators I used the \accentedoperators command however the operators remain unaccented.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[spanish,es-minimal]{babel}
\accentedoperators
\begin{document}
$\lim$
\end{document}

-

In the file spanish.ldf one finds:

\es@genoption{es-minimal}
{es-ucroman,es-noindentfirst,es-nosectiondot,es-noenumerate,%
es-noitemize,es-noquoting,es-notilde,es-nodecimaldot}
{\spanishplainpercent
\let\es@operators\relax}


which shows the definition of es-minimal in terms of other options; in particular, es-minimal includes

\let\es@operators\relax


which is responsible for suppressing the effect of \accentedoperators once es-minimal is called.

One possible solution is to use directly the options of es-minimalexcept the one affecting the accents on operators:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[spanish,es-ucroman,es-noindentfirst,es-nosectiondot,es-noenumerate,es-noitemize,es-noquoting,es-notilde,es-nodecimaldot,]{babel}

\spanishplainpercent

\begin{document}
$\lim$
\end{document}


Another option is to use a local configuration file for the spanish module; this is done by writing a file spanish.cfg containing almost all the options for es-minimal, except the one for accents. The file spanish.cfg then would look like

\es@genoption{es-petminimal}
{es-ucroman,es-noindentfirst,es-nosectiondot,es-noenumerate,%
es-noitemize,es-noquoting,es-notilde,es-nodecimaldot}
{\spanishplainpercent}


Save the file somewhere TeX can find it and then you can load babel using

\usepackage[spanish,es-petminimal]{babel}


this will give you accented operators and the remaining options from es-minimal.

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Your solution work fine. So the \accentedoperators command won't work even if I place it after the es-minimal option? Can I patch in some way the es-minimal option definition to allow accented operators? –  petobens Jun 14 '13 at 3:04
@petobens indeed, once es-minimal has been used, \accentedoperators will have no effect, as I said in my answer. For the second part of your question, you can use a local configuration files, as explained in my updated answer. –  Gonzalo Medina Jun 14 '13 at 3:26
While I understand that the accented "lím" is traditional in Spanish speaking countries, I believe that “lim” is not an abbreviation but rather a symbol used worldwide without an accent. It took me a while switching into using “sin” instead of “sen” (which is used in our schools, because the Italian word is “seno”). –  egreg Jun 14 '13 at 9:48
@egreg What about max and minoperators (used for instance in optimization problems)? In spanish the words are written with accents: "máximo" and "mínimo". Should I write them as "máx" or "max"? –  petobens Jun 14 '13 at 14:49
@petobens Mine was only a general comment. Do what's expected in your field; the most important thing is consistency across a document; either you accent all your operator names (where the accent is needed, of course) or none. –  egreg Jun 14 '13 at 14:52