diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/nltk/data-dir.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/nltk/data-dir.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..d18ab730597b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/nltk/data-dir.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+{
+  lib,
+  pkgs,
+  python3Packages,
+}:
+lib.makeOverridable (
+  { ... }@nltkDataPkgs:
+  f:
+  pkgs.symlinkJoin {
+    inherit (python3Packages.nltk) meta;
+    name = "nltk-data-dir";
+
+    paths = f nltkDataPkgs;
+  }
+) python3Packages.nltk.data
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/nltk/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/nltk/default.nix
index 55831f7708ae..bdb79081ec81 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/nltk/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/nltk/default.nix
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
 
   passthru = {
     data = pkgs.nltk-data;
+    dataDir = pkgs.callPackage ./data-dir.nix { };
   };
 
   meta = with lib; {