diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index e1499c714..2e98fe3d8 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2004-08-14  Carl Worth  <cworth@isi.edu>
+
+	* autogen.sh (LANG): Explicitly set LANG=C to fix the awk
+	string->number conversion for user with locales that don't match
+	ASCII digit conventions.
+
 2004-08-03  Carl Worth  <cworth@isi.edu>
 
 	* src/cairo_gstate.c (extract_transformed_rectangle): Temporarily
diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index 4de364a16..d365a92b1 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 # Run this to generate all the initial makefiles, etc.
-
 set -e
 
 PACKAGE=cairo
@@ -20,6 +19,8 @@ aclocal_min_vers=$automake_min_vers
 autoconf_min_vers=2.54
 libtoolize_min_vers=1.4
 
+# The awk-based string->number conversion we use needs a C locale to work as expected.
+LANG=C
 
 ARGV0=$0