diff --git a/src/grep.c b/src/grep.c
index 3122e22..61154af 100644
--- a/src/grep.c
+++ b/src/grep.c
@@ -1877,7 +1877,7 @@

   /* Internationalization. */
 #if defined(HAVE_SETLOCALE)
-  setlocale (LC_ALL, "");
+  setlocale (LC_ALL, "C");
 #endif
 #if defined(ENABLE_NLS)
   bindtextdomain (PACKAGE, LOCALEDIR);
