diff --git a/glib/gtimezone.c b/glib/gtimezone.c
index 780a38892..178c94531 100644
--- a/glib/gtimezone.c
+++ b/glib/gtimezone.c
@@ -366,6 +366,10 @@ g_time_zone_new (const gchar *identifier)
         {
           gchar *filename;
 
+	  /* identifier can be a relative or absolute path name;
+	     if relative, it is interpreted starting from /usr/share/timezone
+	     while the POSIX standard says it should start with :,
+	     glibc allows both syntaxes, so we should too */
           if (identifier != NULL)
             {
               const gchar *tzdir;
@@ -374,7 +378,13 @@ g_time_zone_new (const gchar *identifier)
               if (tzdir == NULL)
                 tzdir = "/usr/share/zoneinfo";
 
-              filename = g_build_filename (tzdir, identifier, NULL);
+	      if (*identifier == ':')
+		identifier ++;
+
+	      if (g_path_is_absolute (identifier))
+		filename = g_strdup (identifier);
+	      else
+		filename = g_build_filename (tzdir, identifier, NULL);
             }
           else
             filename = g_strdup ("/etc/localtime");