diff --git a/apps/lang/lang.make b/apps/lang/lang.make
index 08cec5090a..c5db820326 100644
--- a/apps/lang/lang.make
+++ b/apps/lang/lang.make
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ LANGS := $(call preprocess, $(APPSDIR)/lang/SOURCES)
 LANGOBJ := $(LANGS:$(ROOTDIR)/%.lang=$(BUILDDIR)/%.lng)
 VOICEOBJ := $(LANGS:$(ROOTDIR)/%.lang=$(BUILDDIR)/%.vstrings)
 LANG_O = $(BUILDDIR)/lang/lang_core.o
+ENGLISH := english
 
 CLEANOBJS += $(BUILDDIR)/lang/max_language_size.h $(BUILDDIR)/lang/lang*
 
@@ -36,7 +37,7 @@ $(BUILDDIR)/lang/lang_core.o: $(BUILDDIR)/lang/lang.h $(BUILDDIR)/lang/lang_core
 # instead we pretend that genlang create lang_core.c and that lang.c depends from lang.h
 # it will work fine as long as one never manually removes lang.c and not lang.h, and it will avoid
 # race conditions such as running genlang twice or worse in parallel with other things!
-$(BUILDDIR)/lang/lang.h: $(APPSDIR)/lang/$(LANGUAGE).lang $(BUILDDIR)/apps/features
+$(BUILDDIR)/lang/lang.h: $(APPSDIR)/lang/$(ENGLISH).lang $(BUILDDIR)/apps/features
 	$(call PRINTS,GEN lang.h)
 	$(SILENT)for f in `cat $(BUILDDIR)/apps/features`; do feat="$$feat:$$f" ; done; \
 		perl -s $(TOOLSDIR)/genlang -p=$(BUILDDIR)/lang -t=$(MODELNAME)$$feat $<
@@ -49,8 +50,8 @@ $(BUILDDIR)/lang_enum.h: $(BUILDDIR)/lang/lang.h
 $(BUILDDIR)/%.lng $(BUILDDIR)/%.vstrings: $(ROOTDIR)/%.lang $(BUILDDIR)/apps/genlang-features
 	$(call PRINTS,GENLANG $(subst $(ROOTDIR)/,,$<))
 	$(SILENT)mkdir -p $(dir $@)
-	$(SILENT)$(TOOLSDIR)/genlang -u -e=$(APPSDIR)/lang/english.lang $< > $@.tmp
-	$(SILENT)$(TOOLSDIR)/genlang -e=$(APPSDIR)/lang/english.lang -t=$(MODELNAME):`cat $(BUILDDIR)/apps/genlang-features` -i=$(TARGET_ID) -b=$*.lng -c=$*.vstrings $@.tmp
+	$(SILENT)$(TOOLSDIR)/genlang -u -e=$(APPSDIR)/lang/$(ENGLISH).lang $< > $@.tmp
+	$(SILENT)$(TOOLSDIR)/genlang -e=$(APPSDIR)/lang/$(ENGLISH).lang -t=$(MODELNAME):`cat $(BUILDDIR)/apps/genlang-features` -i=$(TARGET_ID) -b=$*.lng -c=$*.vstrings $@.tmp
 	$(SILENT)rm -f $@.tmp
 
 $(BUILDDIR)/apps/lang/voicestrings.zip: $(VOICEOBJ)
diff --git a/apps/talk.c b/apps/talk.c
index d38432de7c..3c532d964c 100644
--- a/apps/talk.c
+++ b/apps/talk.c
@@ -82,7 +82,9 @@ const char* const file_thumbnail_ext = ".talk";
 
 #define LOADED_MASK 0x80000000 /* MSB */
 
+#ifndef DEFAULT_VOICE_LANG
 #define DEFAULT_VOICE_LANG "english"
+#endif
 
 /***************** Data types *****************/
 
diff --git a/tools/configure b/tools/configure
index 96d45a9173..501482ea0e 100755
--- a/tools/configure
+++ b/tools/configure
@@ -4669,9 +4669,6 @@ fi
 
 echo "Using source code root directory: $rootdir"
 
-# this was once possible to change at build-time, but no more:
-language="english"
-
 uname=`uname`
 
 if [ "yes" = "$simulator" ]; then
@@ -5039,7 +5036,6 @@ export MANUFACTURER=${t_manufacturer}
 export OBJDIR=${pwd}
 export BUILDDIR=${pwd}
 export RBCODEC_BLD=${pwd}/lib/rbcodec
-export LANGUAGE=${language}
 export VOICELANGUAGE=${voicelanguage}
 export MEMORYSIZE=${memory}
 export BUILDDATE:=\$(shell date -u +'-DYEAR=%Y -DMONTH=%m -DDAY=%d')