diff -r b65ae19bc42a Programs/python.c
--- a/Programs/python.c	Wed Dec 14 11:52:28 2016 +0100
+++ b/Programs/python.c	Thu Dec 15 15:56:52 2016 +1000
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
     /* We need a second copy, as Python might modify the first one. */
     wchar_t **argv_copy2;
     int i, res;
-    char *oldloc;
+    char *oldloc, *ctype_loc;
 
     /* Force malloc() allocator to bootstrap Python */
     (void)_PyMem_SetupAllocators("malloc");
@@ -49,7 +49,30 @@
         return 1;
     }
 
+    /* Reconfigure the locale to the default for this process */
     setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
+
+    /* When the LC_CTYPE category still claims to be using the C locale,
+       assume that's a configuration error and request C.UTF-8 instead. */
+    ctype_loc = setlocale(LC_CTYPE, NULL);
+    if (ctype_loc != NULL && strcmp(ctype_loc, "C") == 0) {
+        const char *msg =
+            "Python detected LC_CTYPE=C. Setting LC_ALL & LANG to C.UTF-8.\n";
+        fprintf(stderr, msg);
+        if (setenv("LC_ALL", "C.UTF-8", 1)) {
+            fprintf(stderr, "Failed to set LC_ALL\n");
+            return 1;
+        }
+        if (setenv("LANG", "C.UTF-8", 1)) {
+            fprintf(stderr, "Failed to set LANG\n");
+            return 1;
+        }
+
+        /* Reconfigure with the overridden environment variables */
+        setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
+    }
+
+    /* Convert from char to wchar_t based on the locale settings */
     for (i = 0; i < argc; i++) {
         argv_copy[i] = Py_DecodeLocale(argv[i], NULL);
         if (!argv_copy[i]) {