German quotes with biblatex/biber

Question

I asked about german quotes and biblatex here German quote shorthands from babel for biblatex but this problem seems different since german quotes are working partly. They work in the main text, they work partly in the bibtex text, but they fail at the beginning of a field with "`. Rather than lower German quotes, I get upper quotes plus lower german quotes.

\documentclass{article}


%\usepackage{german}
\usepackage[ngerman,main=english]{babel}
\useshorthands*{"}
\addto\extrasenglish{\languageshorthands{ngerman}}

\begin{filecontents}{ref.bib}


@incollection{Fanselow92,
        Address = {Berlin, New York},
        Author = {Gisbert Fanselow},
        Booktitle = {{Deutsche Syntax -- Ansichten und Aussichten}},
        Editor = {Ludger Hoffmann},
        Pages = {276--303},
        Publisher = {de Gruyter},
        Series = {Institut für deutsche Sprache, Jahrbuch 1991},
        Title = {{"`Ergative"' Verben und die Struktur des deutschen Mittelfelds}},
        Year = {1992}}


@article{Wegener85a,
        Author = {Heide Wegener},
        Journal = {Linguistische Berichte},
        Pages = {127--139},
        Title = {"`Er bekommt widersprochen"' -- Argumente Test/""Test für die Existenz eines Dativpassivs im Deutschen},
        Volume = {96},
        langid = {ngerman},
        Year = {1985}}

\end{filecontents}

\usepackage{bibentry}

\usepackage[
%autolang=other,
        backend=biber,
]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{ref.bib}

\begin{document}
Here's a citation
\bibentry{Fanselow92}

Test"=Sequenz "`Ergative"' Verben

\nocite{*}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

Edit I did not realize that the style added the quotation marks around the title. I rephrased my question with a different MWE here: Mysterious capitalization of German quotes shorthands useing biblatex

Answer 1

I would suggest to load the (recommended) package csquotes and to use \enquote in the bib-file. The quotes will then be properly nested and adapted to the main language of your document. And if you use the autolang=language option they will even react to the langid field (see the second entry):

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[ngerman,main=english]{babel}
\useshorthands*{"}
\addto\extrasenglish{\languageshorthands{ngerman}}

\begin{filecontents}{ref.bib}


@incollection{Fanselow92,
        Address = {Berlin, New York},
        Author = {Gisbert Fanselow},
        Booktitle = {{Deutsche Syntax -- Ansichten und Aussichten}},
        Editor = {Ludger Hoffmann},
        Pages = {276--303},
        Publisher = {de Gruyter},
        Series = {Institut für deutsche Sprache, Jahrbuch 1991},
        Title = {{\enquote{Ergative} Verben und die Struktur des deutschen Mittelfelds}},
        Year = {1992}}


@article{Wegener85a,
        Author = {Heide Wegener},
        Journal = {Linguistische Berichte},
        Pages = {127--139},
        Title = {\enquote{Er bekommt widersprochen} -- Argumente Test/""Test für die Existenz eines Dativpassivs im Deutschen},
        Volume = {96},
        langid = {ngerman},
        Year = {1985}}

\end{filecontents}

\usepackage{bibentry}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[
autolang=langname,
        backend=biber,
]{biblatex}

\addbibresource{ref.bib}

\begin{document}

\nocite{*}
\printbibliography
\end{document}