diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 4a027fdd6e..760ffdd21e 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ answer newbie questions, and generally made Django that much better:
     Marc Fargas <telenieko@telenieko.com>
     favo@exoweb.net
     Eric Floehr <eric@intellovations.com>
+    Jorge Gajon <gajon@gajon.org>
     gandalf@owca.info
     Baishampayan Ghose
     martin.glueck@gmail.com
diff --git a/django/views/i18n.py b/django/views/i18n.py
index b5eb32bda3..0a19cfe986 100644
--- a/django/views/i18n.py
+++ b/django/views/i18n.py
@@ -9,16 +9,16 @@ def set_language(request):
     """
     Redirect to a given url while setting the chosen language in the
     session or cookie. The url and the language code need to be
-    specified in the GET paramters.
+    specified in the GET parameters.
     """
-    lang_code = request.GET['language']
+    lang_code = request.GET.get('language', None)
     next = request.GET.get('next', None)
     if not next:
         next = request.META.get('HTTP_REFERER', None)
     if not next:
         next = '/'
     response = http.HttpResponseRedirect(next)
-    if check_for_language(lang_code):
+    if lang_code and check_for_language(lang_code):
         if hasattr(request, 'session'):
             request.session['django_language'] = lang_code
         else: