diff --git a/DOCS/man/en/mplayer.1 b/DOCS/man/en/mplayer.1
index e542154378..891e4bf9fc 100644
--- a/DOCS/man/en/mplayer.1
+++ b/DOCS/man/en/mplayer.1
@@ -11114,6 +11114,10 @@ A value of "noconv" means no conversion.
 Directory where MPlayer looks for user settings.
 .
 .TP
+.B MPLAYER_LOCALEDIR
+Directory where MPlayer looks for gettext translation files (if enabled).
+.
+.TP
 .B MPLAYER_VERBOSE (also see \-v and \-msglevel)
 Set the initial verbosity level across all message modules (default: 0).
 The resulting verbosity corresponds to that of \-msglevel 5 plus the
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 2f1ef50364..6bcb759764 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -694,7 +694,9 @@ ALL_PRG-$(MPLAYER)  += mplayer$(EXESUF)
 ALL_PRG-$(MENCODER) += mencoder$(EXESUF)
 
 INSTALL_TARGETS-$(MENCODER) += install-mencoder install-mencoder-man
-INSTALL_TARGETS-$(MPLAYER)  += install-mplayer  install-mplayer-man
+INSTALL_TARGETS-$(MPLAYER)  += install-mplayer \
+                               install-mplayer-man \
+                               install-mplayer-msg
 
 DIRS =  . \
         input \
@@ -733,6 +735,8 @@ DIRS =  . \
         TOOLS \
         vidix \
 
+MOFILES := $(MSG_LANGS:%=locale/%/LC_MESSAGES/mplayer.mo)
+
 ALLHEADERS = $(foreach dir,$(DIRS),$(wildcard $(dir)/*.h))
 
 ADDSUFFIXES     = $(foreach suf,$(1),$(addsuffix $(suf),$(2)))
@@ -741,7 +745,7 @@ ADD_ALL_EXESUFS = $(1) $(call ADDSUFFIXES,$(EXESUFS_ALL),$(1))
 
 ###### generic rules #######
 
-all: $(ALL_PRG-yes)
+all: $(ALL_PRG-yes) locales
 
 %.o: %.c
 	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c -o $@ -MD -MP -MF $*.d $<
@@ -789,6 +793,12 @@ version.h: version.sh
 
 %(EXESUF): %.c
 
+locales: $(MOFILES)
+
+locale/%/LC_MESSAGES/mplayer.mo: po/%.po
+	mkdir -p $(dir $@)
+	msgfmt -c -o $@ $<
+
 
 
 ###### dependency declarations / specific CFLAGS ######
@@ -852,6 +862,7 @@ install-%: %$(EXESUF) install-dirs
 
 install-mencoder-man: $(foreach lang,$(MAN_LANGS),install-mencoder-man-$(lang))
 install-mplayer-man:  $(foreach lang,$(MAN_LANGS),install-mplayer-man-$(lang))
+install-mplayer-msg:  $(foreach lang,$(MSG_LANGS),install-mplayer-msg-$(lang))
 
 install-mencoder-man-en: install-mplayer-man-en
 	cd $(MANDIR)/man1 && ln -sf mplayer.1 mencoder.1
@@ -874,6 +885,14 @@ endef
 $(foreach lang,$(filter-out en,$(MAN_LANG_ALL)),$(eval $(MENCODER_MAN_RULE)))
 $(foreach lang,$(filter-out en,$(MAN_LANG_ALL)),$(eval $(MPLAYER_MAN_RULE)))
 
+define MPLAYER_MSG_RULE
+install-mplayer-msg-$(lang):
+	if test ! -d $(LOCALEDIR)/$(lang)/LC_MESSAGES ; then $(INSTALL) -d $(LOCALEDIR)/$(lang)/LC_MESSAGES ; fi
+	$(INSTALL) -m 644 locale/$(lang)/LC_MESSAGES/mplayer.mo $(LOCALEDIR)/$(lang)/LC_MESSAGES/
+endef
+
+$(foreach lang,$(MSG_LANG_ALL),$(eval $(MPLAYER_MSG_RULE)))
+
 uninstall:
 	rm -f $(BINDIR)/mplayer$(EXESUF) $(BINDIR)/gmplayer$(EXESUF)
 	rm -f $(BINDIR)/mencoder$(EXESUF)
@@ -882,6 +901,7 @@ uninstall:
 	rm -f $(prefix)/share/applications/mplayer.desktop
 	rm -f $(MANDIR)/man1/mplayer.1 $(MANDIR)/man1/mencoder.1
 	rm -f $(foreach lang,$(MAN_LANGS),$(foreach man,mplayer.1 mencoder.1,$(MANDIR)/$(lang)/man1/$(man)))
+	rm -f $(foreach lang,$(MSG_LANGS),$(LOCALEDIR)/$(lang)/LC_MESSAGES/mplayer.1)
 
 clean:
 	-rm -f $(call ADD_ALL_DIRS,/*.o /*.a /*.ho /*~)
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 8a8f161d0b..43aadf4826 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -197,6 +197,8 @@ case $(echo -n) in
   *)    _echo_n='-n '   _echo_c=        ;;      # BSD echo
 esac
 
+msg_lang_all=''
+ls po/*.po >/dev/null 2>&1 && msg_lang_all=$(echo po/*.po | sed -e 's:po/\([^[:space:]]*\)\.po:\1:g')
 man_lang_all=$(echo DOCS/man/??/mplayer.1 DOCS/man/??_??/mplayer.1 | sed -e "s:DOCS/man/\(..\)/mplayer.1:\1:g" -e "s:DOCS/man/\(.._..\)/mplayer.1:\1:g")
 doc_lang_all=$(echo DOCS/xml/??/ DOCS/xml/??_??/ | sed -e "s:DOCS/xml/\(..\)/:\1:g" -e "s:DOCS/xml/\(.._..\)/:\1:g")
 
@@ -402,14 +404,18 @@ Language options:
   --charset=charset      convert the console messages to this character set
   --language-doc=lang    language to use for the documentation [en]
   --language-man=lang    language to use for the man pages [en]
+  --language-msg=lang    extra languages for program messages [all]
   --language=lang        default language to use [en]
 Specific options override --language. You can pass a list of languages separated
 by whitespace or commas instead of a single language. Nonexisting translations
-will be dropped from each list. All documentation and man page translations
-available in the list will be installed, for the messages the first available
-translation will be used. The value "all" will activate all translations. The
-LINGUAS environment variable is honored. In all cases the fallback is English.
-Available values are: all $man_lang_all
+will be dropped from each list. All translations available in the list will be
+installed. The value "all" will activate all translations. The LINGUAS
+environment variable is honored. In all cases the fallback is English.
+The program always supports English-language output; additional message
+languages are only installed if --enable-translation is also specified.
+Available values for --language-doc are: all $doc_lang_all
+Available values for --language-man are: all $man_lang_all
+Available values for --language-msg are: all $msg_lang_all
 
 Miscellaneous options:
   --enable-runtime-cpudetection    enable runtime CPU detection [disable]
@@ -819,6 +825,9 @@ for ac_option do
   --language-man=*)
     language_man=$(echo $ac_option | cut -d '=' -f 2)
     ;;
+  --language-msg=*)
+    language_msg=$(echo $ac_option | cut -d '=' -f 2)
+    ;;
   --language=*)
     language=$(echo $ac_option | cut -d '=' -f 2)
     ;;
@@ -2843,11 +2852,18 @@ echocheck "language"
 test -z "$language" && language=$LINGUAS
 test -z "$language_doc" && language_doc=$language
 test -z "$language_man" && language_man=$language
+test -z "$language_msg" && language_msg="all"
 language_doc=$(echo $language_doc | tr , " ")
 language_man=$(echo $language_man | tr , " ")
+language_msg=$(echo $language_msg | tr , " ")
 
 test "$language_doc" = "all" && language_doc=$doc_lang_all
 test "$language_man" = "all" && language_man=$man_lang_all
+test "$language_msg" = "all" && language_msg=$msg_lang_all
+
+if test "$_translation" != yes ; then
+  language_msg=""
+fi
 
 # Prune non-existing translations from language lists.
 # Set message translation to the first available language.
@@ -2864,7 +2880,12 @@ done
 language_man=$tmp_language_man
 test -z "$language_man" && language_man=en
 
-echores "man pages: $language_man - documentation: $language_doc"
+for lang in $language_msg ; do
+  test -f po/$lang.po && tmp_language_msg="$tmp_language_msg $lang"
+done
+language_msg=$tmp_language_msg
+
+echores "messages (en+): $language_msg - man pages: $language_man - documentation: $language_doc"
 
 
 echocheck "enable sighandler"
@@ -7819,6 +7840,8 @@ DOC_LANGS = $language_doc
 DOC_LANG_ALL = $doc_lang_all
 MAN_LANGS = $language_man
 MAN_LANG_ALL = $man_lang_all
+MSG_LANGS = $language_msg
+MSG_LANG_ALL = $msg_lang_all
 
 prefix = \$(DESTDIR)$_prefix
 BINDIR = \$(DESTDIR)$_bindir
@@ -8553,6 +8576,7 @@ Config files successfully generated by ./configure $_configuration !
   Optimizing for: $_optimizing
 
   Languages:
+    Messages (in addition to English): $language_msg
     Manual pages: $language_man
     Documentation: $language_doc