Basque language in LaTeX2e

These files provide support for the Basque language under the Babel package for LaTeX2e.

1. To install the files

Copy file	to the directory
bahyph.tex	`...tex/generic/hyphen`
basque.ldf	`...tex/generic/babel`
basque.sty	`...tex/generic/babel`

Add to file ...tex/generic/config/language.dat a line in the form:

basque bahyph.tex

You may need to run a configuration utility (such as texconfig in Linux or the Refresh now button in the MikTeX options program under MiKTeX) to inform TeX of the location of these new files.

Create again the latex format by using Update now button in the MikTeX options program under MiKTeX or running

initex latex.ltx /dump

The babel files (basque.dtx, basque.ldf and basque.sty) are distributed with Babel 3.7, but the version here is a bit better:

"- now also writes the dash at the start of the second line when the break occurs at the hyphen. I am indebted to Zunbeltz Izaola for finding the way to implement this feature.

2. Use in your LaTeX documents

\usepackage[basque]{babel}
\selectlanguage{basque}

3. Most words should be correctly hyphenated now.

4. The new/updated commands are:

`"-`	explicit hyphen sign, allowing hyphenation in the rest of the word. If the break occurs at the hyphen it will appear both at the end of the first line and at the beginning of the second line
`"<`	French left double quotes (similar to $<<$ )
`"<`	French right double quotes (similar to $<<$ )
`~n`	«n» with tilde (works for uppercase too)
`\today`	will return a date like the following one: 1997ko otsailaren 7a

5. `\chapter` etc. produce Basque names, but chapter numbers will appear in the wrong side: Kapitulua 1

I have not include a fix for this because then other languages would not work. To avoid this you have to use specific class for books or articles written in Basque. Change the definition for \@makechapterhead (if any) to look as follows (I own this fix to Babel's author, Johannes Braams: thank you Johannes):

\ifx\@makechapterhead\undefined \def\@makechapterhead#1{% \vspace*{50\p@}% {\parindent \z@ \raggedright \normalfont \ifnum \c@secnumdepth >\m@ne \huge\bfseries \thechapter.\space\@chapapp \par\nobreak \vskip 20\p@ \fi \interlinepenalty\@M \Huge \bfseries #1\par\nobreak \vskip 40\p@ }} \fi

For instance, I use liburua.cls instead of book.cls.
To fix the number position in theorem like environments I use the file formatoa.tex as shown in the example file liburua.tex.

6. For advanced users

basque.dtx	creates basque.ldf if run through docstrip
bahyph.sh	is a Unix script to create different versions of bahyph.tex

Last updated: July 7, 2020

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