diff --git a/src/frontends/qt/GuiWorkArea.cpp b/src/frontends/qt/GuiWorkArea.cpp
index 0535ee70d1..210a15036f 100644
--- a/src/frontends/qt/GuiWorkArea.cpp
+++ b/src/frontends/qt/GuiWorkArea.cpp
@@ -1184,7 +1184,7 @@ void GuiWorkArea::Private::paintPreeditText(GuiPainter & pain)
 		im_lang_ = lang;
 	}
 #endif
-		
+
 	// Chinese IM may want cursor position even when preedit string is empty
 	// such a case is handled below
 	if (preedit_string_.empty() && im_->locale().language() != QLocale::Chinese)
diff --git a/src/frontends/qt/GuiWorkArea_Private.h b/src/frontends/qt/GuiWorkArea_Private.h
index 672cba2056..05bc1d8d77 100644
--- a/src/frontends/qt/GuiWorkArea_Private.h
+++ b/src/frontends/qt/GuiWorkArea_Private.h
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ struct GuiWorkArea::Private
 	QTransform item_trans_;
 	bool item_trans_needs_reset_ = false;
 	/// for debug
-	QLocale::Language im_lang_;
+	QLocale::Language im_lang_ = QLocale::AnyLanguage;
 
 	/// Ratio between physical pixels and device-independent pixels
 	/// We save the last used value to detect changes of the