diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 7e335de6df3d1aa07712b5e97c9daaab97be1aa6..eccda55073a58bc5a7337d4e7bf2ec94b08302d6 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2014-04-08  David Lawrence Ramsey  <pooka109@gmail.com>
+	* src/nano.c (main): Convert the literal UTF-8 whitespace string into
+	its corresponding byte sequence, and add a comment for it.
+
 2014-04-08  Benno Schulenberg  <bensberg@justemail.net>
 	* src/rcfile.c (parse_binding): Melt the binding and unbinding code,
 	which are very similar, into a single function.
diff --git a/src/nano.c b/src/nano.c
index de3b5c819728d5bbf0a4878db0ed52c5596b4510..d2755e73ce85aa8a7af39c450b634196291176c4 100644
--- a/src/nano.c
+++ b/src/nano.c
@@ -2595,11 +2595,14 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	matchbrackets = mallocstrcpy(NULL, "(<[{)>]}");
 
 #ifdef ENABLE_NANORC
-    /* If whitespace wasn't specified, set its default value. */
+    /* If whitespace wasn't specified, set its default value.  If we're
+     * using UTF-8, it's Unicode 00BB (Right-Pointing Double Angle
+     * Quotation Mark) and Unicode 00B7 (Middle Dot).  Otherwise, it's
+     * ">" and ".". */
     if (whitespace == NULL) {
 #ifdef ENABLE_UTF8
 	if (using_utf8()) {
-	    whitespace = mallocstrcpy(NULL, "»·");
+	    whitespace = mallocstrcpy(NULL, "\xC2\xBB\xC2\xB7");
 	    whitespace_len[0] = 2;
 	    whitespace_len[1] = 2;
 	} else