diff --git a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/build-env.nix b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/build-env.nix
index 8e81d7eebc38..1b5849a68eb3 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/build-env.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/interpreters/octave/build-env.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 { lib, stdenv, octave, buildEnv
-, makeWrapper, texinfo
+, makeWrapper
+, locale, texinfo, glibcLocalesUtf8
 , wrapOctave
 , computeRequiredOctavePackages
 , extraLibs ? []
@@ -20,7 +21,7 @@ in buildEnv {
   extraOutputsToInstall = [ "out" ] ++ extraOutputsToInstall;
 
   nativeBuildInputs = [ makeWrapper ];
-  buildInputs = [ texinfo wrapOctave ];
+  buildInputs = [ locale texinfo wrapOctave ];
 
   # During "build" we must first unlink the /share symlink to octave's /share
   # Then, we can re-symlink the all of octave/share, except for /share/octave
@@ -33,7 +34,9 @@ in buildEnv {
          cd "${octave}/bin"
          for prg in *; do
              if [ -x $prg ]; then
-                makeWrapper "${octave}/bin/$prg" "$out/bin/$prg" --set OCTAVE_SITE_INITFILE "$out/share/octave/site/m/startup/octaverc"
+                makeWrapper "${octave}/bin/$prg" "$out/bin/$prg" \
+                            --set OCTAVE_SITE_INITFILE "$out/share/octave/site/m/startup/octaverc" \
+                            --set LOCALE_ARCHIVE "${glibcLocalesUtf8}/lib/locale/locale-archive"
              fi
          done
          cd $out