diff --git a/glib/glibintl.h b/glib/glibintl.h
index ee2d0fe42..f540edfe8 100644
--- a/glib/glibintl.h
+++ b/glib/glibintl.h
@@ -7,10 +7,12 @@
 
 #ifdef ENABLE_NLS
 
-gchar *_glib_gettext (const gchar *str) G_GNUC_FORMAT (1);
+gchar *glib_gettext (const gchar *str);
 
 #include <libintl.h>
-#define _(String) _glib_gettext(String)
+#define _(String) glib_gettext(String)
+/* Split out this in the code, but keep it in the same domain for now */
+#define P_(String) glib_gettext(String)
 
 #ifdef gettext_noop
 #define N_(String) gettext_noop(String)
@@ -20,6 +22,7 @@ gchar *_glib_gettext (const gchar *str) G_GNUC_FORMAT (1);
 #else /* NLS is disabled */
 #define _(String) (String)
 #define N_(String) (String)
+#define P_(String) (String)
 #define textdomain(String) (String)
 #define gettext(String) (String)
 #define dgettext(Domain,String) (String)
@@ -27,4 +30,7 @@ gchar *_glib_gettext (const gchar *str) G_GNUC_FORMAT (1);
 #define bindtextdomain(Domain,Directory) (Domain) 
 #endif
 
+/* not really I18N-related, but also a string marker macro */
+#define I_(string) g_intern_static_string (string)
+
 #endif /* __GLIBINTL_H__ */
diff --git a/glib/gutils.c b/glib/gutils.c
index dd9d0e1b5..d54d0b5ec 100644
--- a/glib/gutils.c
+++ b/glib/gutils.c
@@ -3171,8 +3171,16 @@ _glib_get_locale_dir (void)
 
 #endif /* G_OS_WIN32 */
 
+/**
+ * glib_gettext:
+ * str: The string to be translated
+ *
+ * Returns the translated string from the glib translations.
+ * This is an internal function and should only be used by
+ * the internals of glib (such as libgio).
+ */
 G_CONST_RETURN gchar *
-_glib_gettext (const gchar *str)
+glib_gettext (const gchar *str)
 {
   static gboolean _glib_gettext_initialized = FALSE;