diff --git a/src/TTFFont.js b/src/TTFFont.js
index 6aa0937..eff3205 100644
--- a/src/TTFFont.js
+++ b/src/TTFFont.js
@@ -96,14 +96,14 @@ export default class TTFFont {
    * `lang` is a BCP-47 language code.
    * @return {string}
    */
-  getName(key, lang = this.defaultLanguage || fontkit.defaultLanguage) {
+  getName(key, lang = this.defaultLanguage || fontkit.defaultLanguage()) {
     let record = this.name && this.name.records[key];
     if (record) {
       // Attempt to retrieve the entry, depending on which translation is available:
       return (
           record[lang]
           || record[this.defaultLanguage]
-          || record[fontkit.defaultLanguage]
+          || record[fontkit.defaultLanguage()]
           || record['en']
           || record[Object.keys(record)[0]] // Seriously, ANY language would be fine
           || null
diff --git a/src/base.js b/src/base.js
index 1f9d40b..2723963 100644
--- a/src/base.js
+++ b/src/base.js
@@ -23,7 +23,12 @@ export function create(buffer, postscriptName) {
   throw new Error('Unknown font format');
 };
 
-export let defaultLanguage = 'en';
+let _defaultLanguage = 'en';
+
+export function defaultLanguage() {
+  return _defaultLanguage;
+}
+
 export function setDefaultLanguage(lang = 'en') {
-  defaultLanguage = lang;
+  _defaultLanguage = lang;
 };
diff --git a/test/i18n.js b/test/i18n.js
index 81e1d1a..63ac329 100644
--- a/test/i18n.js
+++ b/test/i18n.js
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ describe('i18n', function () {
 
     it('can set global default language to "ar"', function () {
       fontkit.setDefaultLanguage('ar');
-      assert.equal(fontkit.defaultLanguage, 'ar');
+      assert.equal(fontkit.defaultLanguage(), 'ar');
     });
 
     it('font now has "ar" metadata properties', function () {
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ describe('i18n', function () {
 
     it('can reset default language back to "en"', function () {
       fontkit.setDefaultLanguage();
-      assert.equal(fontkit.defaultLanguage, "en");
+      assert.equal(fontkit.defaultLanguage(), "en");
     });
   });