--- utf8.c
+++ utf8.c
@@ -340,10 +340,24 @@ struct charmap *locale_map;
 struct charmap *locale_map_non_utf8;
 			/* Old, non-utf8 version of locale */
 
+static void get_language(void)
+{
+	char *s;
+	if((s = getenv("LC_ALL")) == NULL)
+		if((s = getenv("LC_MESSAGES")) == NULL)
+			s = getenv("LANG");
+
+	s = (s != NULL) ? zdup(s) : USTR "ascii";
+	locale_lang = s;
+	return;
+}
+
 void joe_locale()
 {
 	unsigned char *s, *t, *u;
 
+	get_language();
+
 	s=(unsigned char *)getenv("LC_ALL");
 	if (!s) {
 		s=(unsigned char *)getenv("LC_CTYPE");
@@ -362,8 +376,6 @@ void joe_locale()
 	if ((t=zrchr(s,'.')))
 		*t = 0;
 
-	locale_lang = s;
-
 #ifdef HAVE_SETLOCALE
 	setlocale(LC_ALL,(char *)s);
 	non_utf8_codeset = zdup((unsigned char *)nl_langinfo(CODESET));