diff --git a/libgphoto2_port/configure.ac b/libgphoto2_port/configure.ac
index 8f8d1ffbb..ab5b18fef 100644
--- a/libgphoto2_port/configure.ac
+++ b/libgphoto2_port/configure.ac
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@ dnl before determining the string length. However, the only relevant
 dnl string to determine the length of would be PACKAGE-VERSION/foo/bar
 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([-Wall gnu 1.9 dist-bzip2 check-news])
 
+AC_LANG(C)
+
 # Use the silent-rules feature when possible.
 m4_ifndef([AM_SILENT_RULES], [m4_define([AM_SILENT_RULES],[])])
 AM_SILENT_RULES([no])