diff --git a/src/intl/gettext/libintl.c b/src/intl/gettext/libintl.c
index cde480d45..2e798b528 100644
--- a/src/intl/gettext/libintl.c
+++ b/src/intl/gettext/libintl.c
@@ -206,10 +206,13 @@ set_language(int language)
 		/* We never free() this, purely intentionally. */
 		LANGUAGE = malloc(256);
 	}
-	strcpy(LANGUAGE, language_to_iso639(language));
-	p = strchr(LANGUAGE, '-');
-	if (p)
-		*p = '_';
+	if (LANGUAGE) {
+		strcpy(LANGUAGE, language_to_iso639(language));
+		p = strchr(LANGUAGE, '-');
+		if (p) {
+			*p = '_';
+		}
+	}
 
 	/* Propagate the change to gettext. From the info manual. */
 	{