diff --git a/src/TTFFont.js b/src/TTFFont.js
index 04ef94b4..853db158 100644
--- a/src/TTFFont.js
+++ b/src/TTFFont.js
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ export default class TTFFont {
   }
 
   constructor(stream, variationCoords = null) {
-    this.defaultLanguage = 'en';
+    this.defaultLanguage = null;
     this.stream = stream;
     this.variationCoords = variationCoords;
 
@@ -45,6 +45,10 @@ export default class TTFFont {
     }
   }
 
+  setDefaultLanguage(lang = null) {
+    this.defaultLanguage = lang;
+  }
+
   _getTable(table) {
     if (!(table.tag in this._tables)) {
       try {
@@ -84,39 +88,36 @@ export default class TTFFont {
     return result;
   }
 
-  /**
-   * The unique PostScript name for this font
-   * @type {string}
-   */
-  get postscriptName() {
-    let name = this.getName('postscriptName');
-    if (name) {
-      return name;
-    }
-    
-    let record = this.name.records.postscriptName;
-    if (record) {
-      let lang = Object.keys(record)[0];
-      return record[lang];
-    }
-    
-    return null;
-  }
-
   /**
    * Gets a string from the font's `name` table
    * `lang` is a BCP-47 language code.
    * @return {string}
    */
-  getName(key, lang = this.defaultLanguage) {
-    let record = this.name.records[key];
+  getName(key, lang = this.defaultLanguage || fontkit.defaultLanguage) {
+    let record = this.name && this.name.records[key];
     if (record) {
-      return record[lang];
+      // Attempt to retrieve the entry, depending on which translation is available:
+      return (
+          record[lang]
+          || record[this.defaultLanguage]
+          || record[fontkit.defaultLanguage]
+          || record['en']
+          || record[Object.keys(record)[0]] // Seriously, ANY language would be fine
+          || null
+      );
     }
 
     return null;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * The unique PostScript name for this font, e.g. "Helvetica-Bold"
+   * @type {string}
+   */
+  get postscriptName() {
+    return this.getName('postscriptName');
+  }
+
   /**
    * The font's full name, e.g. "Helvetica Bold"
    * @type {string}
diff --git a/src/base.js b/src/base.js
index e224180d..ec3a584e 100644
--- a/src/base.js
+++ b/src/base.js
@@ -52,3 +52,8 @@ fontkit.create = function(buffer, postscriptName) {
 
   throw new Error('Unknown font format');
 };
+
+fontkit.defaultLanguage = 'en';
+fontkit.setDefaultLanguage = function(lang = 'en') {
+  fontkit.defaultLanguage = lang;
+};
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/i18n.js b/test/i18n.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..038b7ab6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/i18n.js
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+import assert from 'assert';
+
+import fontkit from '../src';
+
+describe('i18n', function() {
+    describe('fontkit.setDefaultLanguage', function () {
+        let font;
+        before('load Amiri font', function() {
+            font = fontkit.openSync(__dirname + '/data/amiri/amiri-regular.ttf');
+        });
+        after('reset default language', function () {
+            fontkit.setDefaultLanguage();
+        });
+
+
+        it('font has "en" metadata properties', function() {
+            assert.equal(font.fullName, 'Amiri');
+            assert.equal(font.postscriptName, 'Amiri-Regular');
+            assert.equal(font.familyName, 'Amiri');
+            assert.equal(font.subfamilyName, 'Regular');
+            assert.equal(font.copyright, 'Copyright (c) 2010-2017, Khaled Hosny <khaledhosny@eglug.org>.\nPortions copyright (c) 2010, Sebastian Kosch <sebastian@aldusleaf.org>.');
+            assert.equal(font.version, 'Version 000.110 ');
+        });
+
+        it('can set global default language to "ar"', function () {
+            fontkit.setDefaultLanguage('ar');
+            assert.equal(fontkit.defaultLanguage, 'ar');
+        });
+
+        it('font now has "ar" metadata properties', function() {
+            assert.equal(font.fullName, 'Amiri');
+            assert.equal(font.postscriptName, 'Amiri-Regular');
+            assert.equal(font.familyName, 'Amiri');
+            assert.equal(font.subfamilyName, 'عادي');
+            assert.equal(font.copyright, 'حقوق النشر 2010-2017، خالد حسني <khaledhosny@eglug.org>.');
+            assert.equal(font.version, 'إصدارة 000٫110');
+        });
+
+        it('can reset default language back to "en"', function () {
+            fontkit.setDefaultLanguage();
+            assert.equal(fontkit.defaultLanguage, "en");
+        });
+    });
+
+    describe('font.setDefaultLanguage', function () {
+        let font;
+        before('load Amiri font', function () {
+            font = fontkit.openSync(__dirname + '/data/amiri/amiri-regular.ttf');
+        });
+
+        it('font has "en" metadata properties', function() {
+            assert.equal(font.fullName, 'Amiri');
+            assert.equal(font.postscriptName, 'Amiri-Regular');
+            assert.equal(font.familyName, 'Amiri');
+            assert.equal(font.subfamilyName, 'Regular');
+            assert.equal(font.copyright, 'Copyright (c) 2010-2017, Khaled Hosny <khaledhosny@eglug.org>.\nPortions copyright (c) 2010, Sebastian Kosch <sebastian@aldusleaf.org>.');
+            assert.equal(font.version, 'Version 000.110 ');
+        });
+
+        it('can set font\'s default language to "ar"', function () {
+            font.setDefaultLanguage('ar');
+            assert.equal(font.defaultLanguage, 'ar');
+        });
+
+        it('font now has "ar" metadata properties', function() {
+            assert.equal(font.fullName, 'Amiri');
+            assert.equal(font.postscriptName, 'Amiri-Regular');
+            assert.equal(font.familyName, 'Amiri');
+            assert.equal(font.subfamilyName, 'عادي');
+            assert.equal(font.copyright, 'حقوق النشر 2010-2017، خالد حسني <khaledhosny@eglug.org>.');
+            assert.equal(font.version, 'إصدارة 000٫110');
+        });
+
+        it('the font\'s language should not change when the global changes', function () {
+            fontkit.setDefaultLanguage('en');
+
+            assert.equal(font.defaultLanguage, 'ar');
+            assert.equal(font.subfamilyName, 'عادي');
+        });
+
+        it('can reset default language back to "en"', function () {
+            font.setDefaultLanguage();
+            assert.equal(font.defaultLanguage, null);
+            assert.equal(font.subfamilyName, 'Regular');
+        });
+    });
+
+    describe('backup languages', function () {
+        let font;
+        before('load Amiri font', function () {
+            font = fontkit.openSync(__dirname + '/data/amiri/amiri-regular.ttf');
+        });
+        after('reset default language', function () {
+            fontkit.setDefaultLanguage();
+        });
+
+        it('if the font\'s default language isn\'t found, use the global language', function () {
+            font.setDefaultLanguage('piglatin');
+            fontkit.setDefaultLanguage('ar');
+
+            assert.equal(font.subfamilyName, 'عادي');
+        });
+        it('if the global language isn\'t found, use "en"', function () {
+            font.setDefaultLanguage('piglatin');
+            fontkit.setDefaultLanguage('klingon');
+
+            assert.equal(font.subfamilyName, 'Regular');
+        });
+    });
+});