diff --git a/src/aspell/rclaspell.cpp b/src/aspell/rclaspell.cpp
index f5da8aee..1a1f7c1f 100644
--- a/src/aspell/rclaspell.cpp
+++ b/src/aspell/rclaspell.cpp
@@ -268,6 +268,9 @@ bool Aspell::buildDict(Rcl::Db &db, string &reason)
     if (!ok())
 	return false;
 
+    string addCreateParam;
+    m_config->getConfParam("aspellAddCreateParam", addCreateParam);
+
     // We create the dictionary by executing the aspell command:
     // aspell --lang=[lang] create master [dictApath]
     string cmdstring(m_data->m_exec);
@@ -277,6 +280,10 @@ bool Aspell::buildDict(Rcl::Db &db, string &reason)
     cmdstring += string(" ") + string("--lang=") + m_lang;
     args.push_back("--encoding=utf-8");
     cmdstring += string(" ") + "--encoding=utf-8";
+    if (!addCreateParam.empty()) {
+	args.push_back(addCreateParam);
+	cmdstring += string(" ") + addCreateParam;
+    }
     args.push_back("create");
     cmdstring += string(" ") + "create";
     args.push_back("master");
diff --git a/src/sampleconf/recoll.conf.in b/src/sampleconf/recoll.conf.in
index ef1d8953..bf0d9bcc 100644
--- a/src/sampleconf/recoll.conf.in
+++ b/src/sampleconf/recoll.conf.in
@@ -266,11 +266,19 @@ filtermaxmbytes = 2000
 
 # Language definitions to use when creating the aspell dictionary. 
 # The value must match a set of aspell language definition files. 
-# You can type "aspell config"  to see where these are installed.
+# You can type "aspell dicts"  to see a list
 # The default if this is not set is to use the NLS environment to guess the
 # value
 # aspellLanguage = en
 
+# Somme aspell packages may need an additional option (e.g. on Debian
+# Jessie). See Debian bug 772415
+# aspellAddCreateParam = --local-data-dir=/usr/lib/aspell
+
+# You may also want to set this to have a look at aspell dictionary
+# creation errors. But there are always many, so this is mostly for debugging
+# aspellKeepStderr = 1
+
 # Disabling aspell use. The aspell dictionary generation takes some time,
 # and some combinations of aspell version, language, and local terms,
 # result in aspell dumping core each time. You can disable the aspell