diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index ac0dabd7c45fa6ba6fb19d0ddf81228ca0663667..be1d6ea3f452d5fcb0f598f8e48856e84ab3ba13 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+2014-03-27  Benno Schulenberg  <bensberg@justemail.net>
+	* src/nano.c (main) - Fix compilation with --disable-utf8.
+
 2014-03-27  Mike Frysinger  <vapier@gentoo.org>.
 	* configure.ac - Make --disable-nanorc with --enable-color barf.
 	* configure.ac - Allow --disable-utf8 and --enable-utf8 to work.
diff --git a/src/nano.c b/src/nano.c
index 97c06c080180e5985e2ebd819a01e8df48394e6a..22305bb7834debd09578777d62840a94ddaae2ec 100644
--- a/src/nano.c
+++ b/src/nano.c
@@ -2563,11 +2563,14 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 #if !defined(NANO_TINY) && defined(ENABLE_NANORC)
     /* If whitespace wasn't specified, set its default value. */
     if (whitespace == NULL) {
+#ifdef ENABLE_UTF8
 	if (using_utf8()) {
 	    whitespace = mallocstrcpy(NULL, "»·");
 	    whitespace_len[0] = 2;
 	    whitespace_len[1] = 2;
-	} else {
+	} else
+#endif
+	{
 	    whitespace = mallocstrcpy(NULL, ">.");
 	    whitespace_len[0] = 1;
 	    whitespace_len[1] = 1;