diff --git a/src/frontends/qt4/GuiApplication.cpp b/src/frontends/qt4/GuiApplication.cpp
index 39b73cf062..f858d85c90 100644
--- a/src/frontends/qt4/GuiApplication.cpp
+++ b/src/frontends/qt4/GuiApplication.cpp
@@ -192,16 +192,19 @@ frontend::Application * createApplication(int & argc, char * argv[])
 void setLocale()
 {
 	QLocale theLocale;
+	string code;
 	if (lyxrc.gui_language == "auto") {
 		theLocale = QLocale::system();
+		code = fromqstr(theLocale.name());
+		// Qt tries to outsmart us and transforms en_US to C.
+		if (code == "C")
+			code = "en_US";
 	} else {
 		Language const * l = languages.getLanguage(lyxrc.gui_language);
-		string const code = l ? l->code() : string();
+		code = l ? l->code() : string();
 		theLocale = QLocale(toqstr(code));
 	}
-	string const code = fromqstr(theLocale.name());
-	// Qt tries to outsmart us and transforms en_US to C.
-	Messages::guiLanguage((code == "C") ? "en_US" : code);
+	Messages::guiLanguage(code);
 	QLocale::setDefault(theLocale);
 	setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, "C");
 }