{babel} is a package that manages culturally-determined typographical (and other) rules, and hyphenation patterns for a wide range of languages.
28
votes
2answers
1k views
What's the benefit of loading babel when writing in English?
When writing in English what is the benefit of loading babel, by \usepackage[english]{babel}, except for the possibility of setting it to use specific English dialects as described in babel: english, ...
22
votes
1answer
2k views
Test if a package (or package option) is loaded
[french]{babel} (aka frenchb) is incompatible with some other packages, such as tikz, since it tries to insert \thinspace before semi-colons.
In order to make these two play nice, you have to call ...
22
votes
1answer
274 views
How to automatically adjust the emdash length according to current language?
In Russian typography the emdash, which is typed as the ligature --- in LaTeX, is 20% shorter than the standard emdash. The babel package cares this difference so that --- prints a shorter emdash if ...
19
votes
1answer
328 views
Why does babel not work in Tikz?
Adding child nodes to child nodes in TikZ Mindmap has some example code, where German words are not hyphenated correctly. I was trying to fix it by using inputenc (for Umlaute) and ...
17
votes
4answers
4k views
LaTeX Hyphenation
Could you please guide me to load the Oxford Dictionary in LaTeX?
I am using MikTeX 2.5 with \usepackage[english]{babel}.
Yes, I need to load the Oxford Dictionary hyphenation patterns in LaTeX.
17
votes
1answer
108 views
Hyphenating words with archaic spellings
I often work with texts from the 17- to 1800s that (in addition to now obsolete words) contain familiar words in slightly different spelling. The language of these texts, and of the ones I'm writing, ...
15
votes
2answers
531 views
babel: Adding ngerman' s language shorthands to english as the main document language
The (n)german language option of the babel package provides various shorthands related to hyphenation, e.g. "-: "an explicit hyphen sign, allowing hyphenation in the
rest of the word" (manual, section ...
15
votes
1answer
334 views
babel shorthand "| doesn't work in macros
The package babel with the ngerman option (and most other languages as well, but not english) provides the shorthand "|, which prevents a ligature at the given position (see p. 81 of the babel ...
14
votes
6answers
923 views
\tableofcontents encoding issue with lualatex
I have a issue when trying to generate table of contents with lualatex in russian. Following example fails to build with ! Undefined control sequence.
\contentsname ->{\cyr \CYRS \cyro \cyrd \cyre ...
14
votes
2answers
180 views
Extra space behind month for \today with \usepackage[norsk]{babel} in December
When using \today and \usepackage[norsk]{babel} (babel <v3.8l>) in December there is an extra space behind the month name. How do I get around this?
\documentclass{article}
...
14
votes
3answers
10k views
babel: english, american, USenglish
Does it make any difference (and if so, which) whether I use english, american, or USenglish as the option for the babel package?
I've already looked into the package description, and it seems to be ...
14
votes
2answers
450 views
Polyglossia vs Babel
Could someone summarize features which are (1) common and (2) different for the babel and polyglossia packages? I know that babel 3.8 (current version) fails to run for some languages (eg, Russian) ...
13
votes
3answers
1k views
biblatex: Switching languages for *citations* according to the bibentry's “hyphenation” field
Quoting from section 3.1.2.1 of the biblatex manual:
[The babel] option controls which
language environment is used if the
babel package is loaded and a
bibliography entry includes a
...
13
votes
2answers
669 views
Multilingual class/style file?
I'm writing some templates and class files that need to use some strings of text, say names for theorems, lemmas, etc., and I would like to provide the ability to easily switch the language in which ...
13
votes
3answers
441 views
hyperref links break with babel + hebrew (or right-to-left language)
It's time for Eyal's babel + Hebrew incompatibility of the week. And this time: hyperref... :-(
Basically, you can't get links with right-to-left text. It's about the direction rather than the ...
12
votes
1answer
4k views
How to change the title of ToC?
I need to change default title of ToC. Is it possible with titlesec package?
Here is my MWE:
\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{titlesec}
...
12
votes
2answers
7k views
No hyphenation patterns were loaded for the language
I'm using babel package for spanish language. However, each time I compile my document, the package babel throws me a warning:
Package babel Warning: No hyphenation patterns were loaded for
(babel) ...
12
votes
3answers
224 views
Why does the package babel[french] destroy \@for loops?
Why does this minimal example code:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[francais]{babel}
\begin{document}
\def\names{Toto,Titi,Tete,Tutu}
\makeatletter
\@for\next:=\names\do{\textbf{\next} }
...
12
votes
1answer
97 views
Hyphenation exceptions not loaded when using babel with multiple languages
When I use babel with more than one language loaded, my hyphenation exceptions are not used. Here is an example:
====== hy.tex =======
\hyphenation{para-dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane}
====== ...
12
votes
1answer
78 views
Using babel and cleveref causes unnecessary horizontal space in header
Update
This bug has been fixed with version 0.18.9 of cleveref, which is currently on ctan.
Question
Babel and cleveref do not seem to work flawlessy together when they share the same language ...
11
votes
3answers
234 views
tikz declare function and babel french option
I would like to declare functions in tikz for multiple uses of the same function within the code.
Sadly, it seems that the tikz "declare function" is not compatible with the french option in babel.
...
11
votes
2answers
244 views
Using breakable hyphen "= in \newcommand
I want to use a breakable hyphen "= in a command:
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
\newcommand{\TT}{Test"=Text }
\begin{document}
This is a test whether the hyphen in \TT ...
11
votes
1answer
429 views
Why is babel loading all these languages?
The following document:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\begin{document}
Something
\end{document}
Produces the following .log file:
Running `LaTeX' on `mwe' with ``pdflatex ...
11
votes
1answer
529 views
Typography and style for acknowledgments written in different languages
My thesis is written in English, but for the acknowledgment page I think I will write a first paragraph in English, one in Italian and one in French.
I was wondering if I have to do something ...
11
votes
1answer
125 views
How to make a new greek font to work with babel
I have an OpenType font (.otf) and I need to use it from pdftex. I use an 8 bit input encoding. I am stuck on the greek part with babel. The input I use is the following:
...
10
votes
3answers
795 views
What's the difference between ngerman and german in babel?
I use the following three packages to get correct German umlauts in the generated PDF:
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} % this is needed for umlauts
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel} % this is needed for ...
10
votes
2answers
229 views
Catalan language “ele geminada”
I have a document with catalan babel, and, in catalan language, it's common to use a letter called ele geminada or two lower-case L and an interpunct (·) between them. (Like "cel·la" or "pel·lícula". ...
10
votes
2answers
200 views
Is babel a proper place to reset document layout?
The babel package, when called with some language options, changes global document layout. For exapmle,
\usepackage[french]{babel}
forces first paragraph after sectioning command to be intented, ...
10
votes
2answers
870 views
Right-to-left text in LaTeX - reversed numbers and parentheses
Finally I got my Hebrew working on LaTeX.
Everything's working great except for two issues - numbers and parentheses. Numbers are written the other way around (one hundred would be written 001), and ...
10
votes
1answer
361 views
“ with tipa and babel's ngerman / \shorthandoff{”} in a macro
TL;DR see below at "core problem"
Problem
I'm trying to solve a conflict between the packages tipa (Fonts and macros for IPA phonetics characters) and babel with the ngerman option. The problem ...
9
votes
3answers
297 views
Punctuation in bibliography with multiple languages
In a document written in a given language (in my case French but it may not matter so much) I have a bibliography mixing entries in different languages (in this case French, English and German). I ...
9
votes
2answers
87 views
What is the difference between \declare@shorthand and \defineshorthand in babel?
What is the difference between \declare@shorthand and \defineshorthand in babel (v.3.9)? Which of the two macros is preferable in a language definition file?
babel.pdf manual (v.3.9) provides an ...
9
votes
2answers
284 views
Unexpected clash between babel and pgf spy
The following example taken from the pgfplots manual (p. 121) works
fine only if the line loading babel is commented
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[frenchb]{babel} % this is the troubelsome ...
9
votes
2answers
1k views
Conflict between babel, hyperref and appendix package
While writing my thesis I use the hyperref and appendix packages like in the little example below.
test.tex
\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage[titletoc]{appendix}
...
9
votes
2answers
589 views
What is the right way to redefine macros defined by babel?
If I want to use the babel package and redefine a macro such as \contentsname, what is the right way to go about this? Just putting \renewcommand in the preamble doesn't work.
This sort of works
...
9
votes
2answers
76 views
biblatex: change name of author according to language?
Usually a name stays the same in whatever language. So, whenever I quote a work by Knuth -- be it in an English article or a German one -- I will quote him as Donald E. Knuth.
This is not always the ...
9
votes
2answers
588 views
Multiple-language document - babel - selectlanguage vs begin/end{otherlanguage}
What's the difference in babel package, between :
\selectlanguage{languageA}
and
\begin{otherlanguage}{languageB}
Text in language B.
\end{otherlanguage}
?
I'd like to write two langauge ...
9
votes
1answer
320 views
What is a good strategy to internationalize a document class?
I am busy with a new document class and I have been trying my hand in internationalizing some of the contents. I have tried using translator from Beamer. Is this a good strategy? Can the code shown ...
9
votes
1answer
70 views
Ancient Greek hyphenation in LuaLaTeX
Can anybody tell me the current state of hyphenation patterns in LuaLaTeX, especially with regard to Ancient Greek?
I searched here on tex.sx and on the web. There are many mailing lists discussing ...
9
votes
1answer
238 views
What is the implication of the warning in the fontspec manual with respect to babel and LuaTeX?
In the fontspec manual, there is a section on LuaTeX that states:
babel The babel package is not really supported! Especially Vietnamese, Greek, and Hebrew at least might not work ...
8
votes
3answers
487 views
babel's hyphenation-friendly hyphen "= in multiple languages
Why doesn't the hyphenation work with multiple languages? See code:
\documentclass[a4paper]{report}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}
...
8
votes
4answers
2k views
Typesetting a document using Arabic script
I'm using TeXlive (2009-7) on Ubuntu 10.04. I've installed texlive-lang-arabic and I can't find out how should I compose the preamble to be able to use it. The babel's documentation I've found in the ...
8
votes
2answers
342 views
No space after closing double quote
As the title says, there's no spacing after my closing quotes, I have boiled my huge preamble down to the following,
% Manual: http://ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/memoir/memman.pdf
...
8
votes
3answers
737 views
Problem with spanish babel package
I'm trying to use package amscd for a commutative diagram.
Everything goes smoothly if I write:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{amscd}
\begin{document}
$\begin{CD}
A ...
8
votes
2answers
476 views
lualatex error with Brazilian Portuguese babel option
It seems that lualatex does not known the Brazilian dialect of the Portuguese language with the babel package.
When compiling the simple document:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[brazil]{babel}
...
8
votes
2answers
903 views
babel with russian and english language
I need to use Russian in my article, but the default language has to be English.
How do I do this?
I use:
\usepackage[russian]{babel}
Result: all chapter names and date are in Russian.
Change ...
8
votes
1answer
124 views
Using \selectlanguage with csquotes
As per this question, I am using csquotes to convert quotationmarks to typographical-quotes. However, when changing language through \selectlanguage the quotationmarks no longer gets converted. (I ...
8
votes
2answers
293 views
Babel and the decimal separator
I'm using Babel for writing a document in spanish. However, it uses a comma instead of a period as a decimal marker (i.e. 3,14 instead of 3.14).
Is there any way to reverse the behaviour? I prefer ...
8
votes
1answer
145 views
Babel warns of lack of hyphenation patterns for Hebrew
I use TeX Live including the Hebrew package. I've tried to produce a simple TeX file:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage [english,hebrew]{babel}
\begin{document}
שלום
\end{document}
but I keep ...
8
votes
1answer
133 views
Write a class with language dependent strings
I am unable to make my class strings language dependent using babel.
I have the following minimal example:
file test-babel.cls
\NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}[1999/12/01]
...
