diff --git a/framework/Common.cpp b/framework/Common.cpp
index 80db02ff6..95ead1364 100644
--- a/framework/Common.cpp
+++ b/framework/Common.cpp
@@ -98,9 +98,6 @@ idCVar com_videoRam( "com_videoRam", "64", CVAR_INTEGER | CVAR_SYSTEM | CVAR_NOC
 
 idCVar com_product_lang_ext( "com_product_lang_ext", "1", CVAR_INTEGER | CVAR_SYSTEM | CVAR_ARCHIVE, "Extension to use when creating language files." );
 
-// Tels: can be removed when D3 is open source and we can access sys_lang properly
-idCVar cv_tdm_lang("tdm_lang",	"english",	CVAR_GUI | CVAR_ARCHIVE, "The current used language. Possible values are 'english', 'german', 'russian' etc." );
-
 
 // com_speeds times
 int				time_gameFrame;
@@ -217,8 +214,6 @@ class idCommonLocal : public idCommon {
 
 	int							gameDLL;
 
-	idLangDict					languageDict; // legacy
-
 #ifdef ID_WRITE_VERSION
 	idCompressor *				config_compressor;
 #endif
@@ -1711,12 +1706,8 @@ idCommonLocal::GetLanguageDict
 */
 const idLangDict *idCommonLocal::GetLanguageDict( void )
 {
-#if 0
-	return &languageDict;
-#endif
-
 	// Redirect the call to I18N
-	return GetI18N()->GetLanguageDict();
+	return i18n->GetLanguageDict();
 }
 
 I18N* idCommonLocal::GetI18N()
@@ -1749,39 +1740,8 @@ idCommonLocal::InitLanguageDict
 ===============
 */
 void idCommonLocal::InitLanguageDict( void ) {
-	idStr fileName;
-	languageDict.Clear();
-
-	//D3XP: Instead of just loading a single lang file for each language
-	//we are going to load all files that begin with the language name
-	//similar to the way pak files work. So you can place english001.lang
-	//to add new strings to the english language dictionary
-	idFileList*	langFiles;
-	langFiles =  fileSystem->ListFilesTree( "strings", ".lang", true );
-	
-	idStrList langList = langFiles->GetList();
 
 	StartupVariable( "sys_lang", false );	// let it be set on the command line - this is needed because this init happens very early
-	idStr langName = cvarSystem->GetCVarString( "sys_lang" );
-
-	//Loop through the list and filter
-	idStrList currentLangList = langList;
-	FilterLangList(&currentLangList, langName);
-	
-	if ( currentLangList.Num() == 0 ) {
-		// reset cvar to default and try to load again
-		cmdSystem->BufferCommandText( CMD_EXEC_NOW, "reset sys_lang" );
-		langName = cvarSystem->GetCVarString( "sys_lang" );
-		currentLangList = langList;
-		FilterLangList(&currentLangList, langName);
-	}
-
-	for( int i = 0; i < currentLangList.Num(); i++ ) {
-		//common->Printf("%s\n", currentLangList[i].c_str());
-		languageDict.Load( currentLangList[i], false );
-	}
-
-	fileSystem->FreeFileList(langFiles);
 
 	Sys_InitScanTable();
 }
@@ -3037,9 +2997,6 @@ void idCommonLocal::Shutdown( void ) {
 	warningCaption.Clear();
 	errorList.Clear();
 
-	// free language dictionary
-	languageDict.Clear();
-
 	// enable leak test
 	Mem_EnableLeakTest( "doom" );
 
diff --git a/framework/I18N.cpp b/framework/I18N.cpp
index 0990d3091..f8d93fbfa 100644
--- a/framework/I18N.cpp
+++ b/framework/I18N.cpp
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ I18NLocal::Init
 void I18NLocal::Init()
 {
 	// some default values, the object becomes only fully usable after Init(), tho:
-	m_lang = cvarSystem->GetCVarString( "tdm_lang" );
+	m_lang = cvarSystem->GetCVarString( "sys_lang" );
 	m_bMoveArticles = (m_lang != "polish" && m_lang != "italian") ? true : false;
 
 	m_Dict.Clear();
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ void I18NLocal::Init()
 	m_Remap.Empty();						// by default, no remaps
 
 	// Create the correct dictionary
-	SetLanguage( cvarSystem->GetCVarString( "tdm_lang" ), true );
+	SetLanguage( cvarSystem->GetCVarString( "sys_lang" ), true );
 }
 
 /*
@@ -370,32 +370,14 @@ void I18NLocal::SetLanguage( const char* lang, bool firstTime ) {
 	m_lang = lang;
 
 	// set sys_lang
-	cvarSystem->SetCVarString("tdm_lang", lang);
+	cvarSystem->SetCVarString("sys_lang", lang);
 	m_bMoveArticles = (m_lang != "polish" && m_lang != "italian") ? true : false;
 
-	idStr newLang = idStr(lang);
-
 	// If we need to remap some characters upon loading one of these languages:
-	LoadCharacterMapping(newLang);
-
-	// For some reason, "english", "german", "french" and "spanish" share
-	// the same font, but "polish" and "russian" get their own font. But
-	// since "polish" is actually a copy of the normal western font, use
-	// "english" instead to trick D3 into loading the correct font. The
-	// dictionary below will be polish, regardless.
-	if (newLang == "polish")
-	{
-		newLang = "english";
-	}
-	// set sysvar sys_lang (if not possible, D3 will revert to english)
-	cvarSystem->SetCVarString( "sys_lang", newLang.c_str() );
+	LoadCharacterMapping(m_lang);
 
-	// If sys_lang differs from lang, the language was not supported, so
-	// we will load it ourselves.
-	if ( newLang != cvarSystem->GetCVarString( "sys_lang" ) )
-	{
-		common->Printf("I18NLocal: Language '%s' not supported by D3, forcing it.\n", lang);
-	}
+	// set sysvar sys_lang
+	cvarSystem->SetCVarString( "sys_lang", m_lang.c_str() );
 
 	// build our combined dictionary, first the TDM base dict
 	idStr file = "strings/"; file += m_lang + ".lang";
diff --git a/sys/sys_local.cpp b/sys/sys_local.cpp
index 4336633f4..7eb0ffc49 100644
--- a/sys/sys_local.cpp
+++ b/sys/sys_local.cpp
@@ -23,12 +23,7 @@
 static bool versioned = RegisterVersionedFile("$Id$");
 #include "sys_local.h"
 
-const char * sysLanguageNames[] = {
-	"english", "spanish", "italian", "german", "french", "russian", 
-	"polish", "korean", "japanese", "chinese", NULL
-};
-
-idCVar sys_lang( "sys_lang", "english", CVAR_SYSTEM | CVAR_ARCHIVE,  "", sysLanguageNames, idCmdSystem::ArgCompletion_String<sysLanguageNames> );
+idCVar sys_lang( "sys_lang", "english", CVAR_SYSTEM | CVAR_ARCHIVE,  "The current used language. Possible values are 'english', 'german', 'russian' etc." );
 
 idSysLocal			sysLocal;
 idSys *				sys = &sysLocal;
diff --git a/ui/DeviceContext.cpp b/ui/DeviceContext.cpp
index 3b553a9b3..1f99cdc3e 100644
--- a/ui/DeviceContext.cpp
+++ b/ui/DeviceContext.cpp
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ void idDeviceContext::SetupFonts() {
 	fontLang = cvarSystem->GetCVarString( "sys_lang" );
 	
 	// western european languages can use the english font
-	if ( fontLang == "french" || fontLang == "german" || fontLang == "spanish" || fontLang == "italian" ) {
+	if ( fontLang == "french" || fontLang == "german" || fontLang == "spanish" || fontLang == "italian" || fontLang == "polish") {
 		fontLang = "english";
 	}