diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/aspell/dictionaries.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/aspell/dictionaries.nix
index ea8a2133c82b..ba5b3d6ddd51 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/aspell/dictionaries.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/aspell/dictionaries.nix
@@ -103,8 +103,9 @@ let
         homepage = "http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/aspell/dict/0index.html";
       } // (args.meta or {});
 
-    } // lib.optionalAttrs (stdenv.isDarwin && lib.elem language [ "is" "nb" ]) {
-      # tar: Cannot open: Illegal byte sequence
+    } // lib.optionalAttrs (lib.elem language [ "is" "nb" ]) {
+      # These have Windows-1251 encoded non-ASCII characters,
+      # so need some special handling.
       unpackPhase = ''
         runHook preUnpack