French date: wrong long format

[bjacquemin]

Using biblatex-apa with french-apa.lbx, I observe that the display of dates in long format (web pages, newspaper articles, etc.) presents the format "month day, year" (like in American English) whereas it should be "day month year" (standard presentation of all dates in French). Could there be an error in the French configuration file, with an incorrect American display, or an error in my own configuration (but I'm trying to remain as standard as possible, and therefore as little ad hoc as possible, of course)?

I am indeed using the French language (polyglossia or babel) and I've tried with the datetime2 package without success. Here's a minimal working example with an @online reference.

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}

\begin{filecontents}{biblio.bib}
  @online{enssib_index_,
   title = {Index thématique | Enssib},
   author = {{Enssib}},
   url = {https://www.enssib.fr/bibliotheque-numerique/index-thematique},
   urldate = {2024-11-15},
   langid = {french},
   organization = {Enssib | École nationale supérieure des sciences de l'information et des bibliothèques},
}
\end{filecontents}

\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage{french}
% \usepackage[french]{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\usepackage[useregional]{datetime2}

\usepackage[%
  backend=biber,
  style=apa,
  natbib=true,
  sorting=nyt,
  ]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{biblio.bib}

\begin{document}

\Today{} \citep{enssib_index_}

\printbibliography

\end{document}

The result is (the problematic part of the reference is in bold: it should be "le 15 novembre 2024". The month name is indeed in French, but the order of elements is not the standard French order):

Enssib. (s. d.). Index thématique | Enssib. Enssib | École nationale supérieure des sciences de l’information et des bibliothèques. Récupérée novembre 15, 2024, à partir de https://www.enssib.fr/bibliotheque-numerique/index-thematique

The biblatex-apa package and the french-apa.lbx file are up to date (texlive up to date under Debian 12).

I asked the question on latexusersgroup@google.com which referred me to Philip Kime, who advised me to contact tex.stackexchange where I was sent back here. It's possible that the request I'm making exceeds my LaTeX skills.

Any advice or clue for a standard display is welcome!

Regards!

[plk]

Can you get french-apa.lbx from the current master branch and replace the file found at:

kpsewhich french-apa.lbx

and test again?

[bjacquemin]

Thank you for your response!

I’ve just tested it, and it’s almost perfect. The result produced from the same document is as follows:

Enssib. (s. d.). Index thématique | Enssib. Enssib | École nationale supérieure des sciences de l’information et des bibliothèques. Récupérée 15 novembre, 2024, à partir de https://www.enssib.fr/bibliotheque-numerique/index-thematique

And according to the University of Montreal (https://bib.umontreal.ca/citer/styles-bibliographiques/apa), it should be:

Enssib. (s. d.). Index thématique | Enssib. Enssib | École nationale supérieure des sciences de l’information et des bibliothèques. Consulté le 15 novembre 2024 à https://www.enssib.fr/bibliotheque-numerique/index-thematique

So there are three differences:

• "Retrieved... from" is translated as 'Consulté... à' (not "Récupérée..., à partir de")
• No comma between the month and the year (novembre 2024)
• The use of "le" between "Retrieved" (or "Consulté") and the date ("Consulté le 15...")

Best regards,

[plk]

Please try the updated file again.

[bjacquemin]

Wonderful! Thank you very much. As I notice that several expressions in the \DeclareBibliographyStrings settings still need to be translated into French, and since it's my mother tongue, I can make suggestions for each line marked with FIXME (and send these to you). Obviously, I don't wish to encroach upon anyone's prerogatives or overstep my role: if I'm being presumptuous, please don't hesitate to tell me. Thanks again!

[plk]

That's most welcome - we rely on native speakers to help with this.