diff --git a/lib/Serge/Util.pm b/lib/Serge/Util.pm
index 857de2dd..009b1d9a 100644
--- a/lib/Serge/Util.pm
+++ b/lib/Serge/Util.pm
@@ -349,7 +349,7 @@ sub subst_macros_strref {
 
         my $alias = $Serge::Util::LangID::alias{$lang};
         $lang = $alias if $alias;
-        my $h = $Serge::Util::LangID::map{$lang};
+        my $h = $Serge::Util::LangID::map{$lang} || $Serge::Util::LangID::map{''};
         if ($h) {
             my $langid = $h->{code};
             $$strref =~ s/%LANGID:DEC%/$langid/ge;
diff --git a/lib/Serge/Util/LangID.pm b/lib/Serge/Util/LangID.pm
index 84e68b2c..ed0f3b1e 100644
--- a/lib/Serge/Util/LangID.pm
+++ b/lib/Serge/Util/LangID.pm
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ our %alias = (
 our $default_codepage = 1252; # ANSI Latin 1; Western European (Windows)
 
 our %map = (
+  ''        => {code => 0x0800, lang => 'LANG_SYSTEM_DEFAULT', sublang => 'SUBLANG_SYS_DEFAULT', afx => 'AFX_TARG_ENU', cp => $default_codepage},  # reasonable defaults
 
   'af'      => {code => 0x0436, lang => 'LANG_AFRIKAANS', sublang => 'SUBLANG_AFRIKAANS_SOUTH_AFRICA', afx => 'AFX_TARG_AFK'},  # <AFK> <Afrikaans> <Afrikaans>
   'sq'      => {code => 0x041c, lang => 'LANG_ALBANIAN', sublang => 'SUBLANG_ALBANIAN_ALBANIA', afx => 'AFX_TARG_SQI'},  # <SQI> <Albanian> <Albanian>