diff --git a/annogen.py b/annogen.py
index f4a1a0a8b5696625199245ba0313d7a35c107320..970b8f06af35514c87ee37c47461e608cf19bf0e 100755
--- a/annogen.py
+++ b/annogen.py
@@ -246,6 +246,7 @@ else: yarowsky_debug = 0
 ybytes_step = int(ybytes_step)
 maxrefs = int(maxrefs)
 ymax_threshold = int(ymax_threshold)
+if not golang: golang = ""
 def errExit(msg):
   sys.stderr.write(msg+"\n") ; sys.exit(1)
 if ref_pri and not (reference_sep and ref_name_end): errExit("ref-pri option requires reference-sep and ref-name-end to be set")