diff -ru fontconfig-2.1.pristine/fc-lang/fc-lang.c fontconfig-2.1.working/fc-lang/fc-lang.c
--- fontconfig-2.1.pristine/fc-lang/fc-lang.c	2002-08-22 02:36:43.000000000 -0500
+++ fontconfig-2.1.working/fc-lang/fc-lang.c	2003-01-10 23:11:48.000000000 -0600
@@ -309,10 +309,26 @@
     /*
      * Dump sets
      */
+
+    /*
+     * accumulate start indices for the fast indexing
+     */
+    int setHashStart[26] = {},setHashEnd[26] = {};
+    FcChar8 firstchar = '\0';
+    
     printf ("static const FcLangCharSet  fcLangCharSets[] = {\n");
     for (i = 0; sets[i]; i++)
     {
 	int	j = duplicate[i];
+	char c;
+	if(names[i][0] > firstchar) {
+	    for(c = firstchar;c < names[i][0] && c <= 'z';c++)
+		setHashEnd[c - 'a'] = i - 1;
+	    for(c = firstchar+1;c <= names[i][0] && c <= 'z';c++)
+		setHashStart[c - 'a'] = i;
+
+	    firstchar = names[i][0];
+	}
 	if (j < 0)
 	    j = i;
 	printf ("    { (FcChar8 *) \"%s\",\n"
@@ -323,6 +339,21 @@
 		sets[j]->num, names[j], names[j]);
     }
     printf ("};\n\n");
+    
+    if('a' <= firstchar <= 'z')
+	setHashEnd[firstchar - 'a'] = i - 1;
+    
+    /*
+     * Dump sets start/finish for the fastpath
+     */
+    printf ("static const FcLangCharSetRange  fcLangCharSetRages[] = {\n");
+    for (i = 0; i < 26; i++)
+    {
+	printf ("    { %d, %d }, /* %c */\n",
+		setHashStart[i],setHashEnd[i],'a'+i);
+    }
+    printf ("};\n\n");
+
     while (fgets (line, sizeof (line), stdin))
 	fputs (line, stdout);
     
diff -ru fontconfig-2.1.pristine/fc-lang/fclang.h fontconfig-2.1.working/fc-lang/fclang.h
--- fontconfig-2.1.pristine/fc-lang/fclang.h	2002-10-21 12:03:47.000000000 -0500
+++ fontconfig-2.1.working/fc-lang/fclang.h	2003-01-10 23:11:48.000000000 -0600
@@ -3996,3 +3996,32 @@
       { FC_REF_CONSTANT, 1, (FcCharLeaf **) leaves_fj, (FcChar16 *) numbers_fj } },
 };
 
+static const FcLangCharSetRange  fcLangCharSetRages[] = {
+    { 0, 8 }, /* a */
+    { 9, 21 }, /* b */
+    { 22, 31 }, /* c */
+    { 32, 34 }, /* d */
+    { 35, 40 }, /* e */
+    { 41, 48 }, /* f */
+    { 49, 55 }, /* g */
+    { 56, 63 }, /* h */
+    { 64, 72 }, /* i */
+    { 73, 73 }, /* j */
+    { 74, 88 }, /* k */
+    { 89, 94 }, /* l */
+    { 95, 104 }, /* m */
+    { 105, 110 }, /* n */
+    { 111, 114 }, /* o */
+    { 115, 116 }, /* p */
+    { 117, 116 }, /* q */
+    { 117, 119 }, /* r */
+    { 120, 139 }, /* s */
+    { 140, 153 }, /* t */
+    { 154, 157 }, /* u */
+    { 158, 161 }, /* v */
+    { 162, 164 }, /* w */
+    { 165, 165 }, /* x */
+    { 166, 168 }, /* y */
+    { 169, 174 }, /* z */
+};
+
Only in fontconfig-2.1.working/src: .fclang.c.swp
diff -ru fontconfig-2.1.pristine/src/fclang.c fontconfig-2.1.working/src/fclang.c
--- fontconfig-2.1.pristine/src/fclang.c	2002-08-26 18:34:31.000000000 -0500
+++ fontconfig-2.1.working/src/fclang.c	2003-01-10 23:12:56.000000000 -0600
@@ -29,6 +29,11 @@
     FcCharSet	charset;
 } FcLangCharSet;
 
+typedef struct {
+    int begin;
+    int end;
+} FcLangCharSetRange;
+
 #include "../fc-lang/fclang.h"
 
 #define NUM_LANG_CHAR_SET   (sizeof (fcLangCharSets) / sizeof (fcLangCharSets[0]))
@@ -228,14 +233,53 @@
 {
     int	    low, high, mid;
     int	    cmp;
+    FcChar8 firstChar; /* first two chars, then we just let it go to a case insensitive compare */
+    firstChar=FcToLower(lang[0]);
+
+    if(firstChar < 'a')
+    {
+	low = 0;
+	high = fcLangCharSetRages[0].begin;
+    }
+    else if(firstChar > 'z')
+    {
+	low = fcLangCharSetRages[25].begin;
+	high = NUM_LANG_CHAR_SET - 1;
+    }
+    else
+    {
+	low = fcLangCharSetRages[firstChar - 'a'].begin;
+	high = fcLangCharSetRages[firstChar - 'a'].end;
+	if(low > high) /* no matches */
+	  return -low; /* next entry after where it would be */
+    }
 
-    low = 0;
-    high = NUM_LANG_CHAR_SET - 1;
     while (low <= high)
     {
 	mid = (high + low) >> 1;
-	cmp = FcStrCmpIgnoreCase (fcLangCharSets[mid].lang, lang);
-	if (cmp == 0) 
+	if(fcLangCharSets[mid].lang[0] != firstChar)
+	    cmp = FcStrCmpIgnoreCase(fcLangCharSets[mid].lang, lang);
+	else
+	{   /* fast path for resolving 2-letter languages (by far the most common) after
+	     * finding the first char (probably already true because of the hash table) */
+	    FcChar8 secondChar = FcToLower(lang[1]);
+	    if (fcLangCharSets[mid].lang[1] > secondChar) // check second chars
+	    {
+		high = mid - 1;
+		continue;
+	    }
+	    else if (fcLangCharSets[mid].lang[1] < secondChar)
+	    {
+		low = mid + 1;
+		continue;
+	    }
+	    else if (fcLangCharSets[mid].lang[2] == '\0' && lang[2] == '\0')
+		return mid;
+
+	    else /* identical through the first two charcters, but at least one string didn't end there */
+		cmp = FcStrCmpIgnoreCase(fcLangCharSets[mid].lang+2, lang+2);
+	}
+	if (cmp == 0)
 	    return mid;
 	if (cmp < 0)
 	    low = mid + 1;
@@ -407,32 +451,28 @@
 FcLangSet *
 FcNameParseLangSet (const FcChar8 *string)
 {
-    FcChar8	    lang[32];
-    const FcChar8   *end, *next;
+    FcChar8	    lang[32],c;
+    int i;
     FcLangSet	    *ls;
 
     ls = FcLangSetCreate ();
     if (!ls)
 	goto bail0;
 
-    while (string && *string) 
+    for(;;)
     {
-	end = (FcChar8 *) strchr ((char *) string, '|');
-	if (!end)
+	for(i = 0; i < 31;i++)
 	{
-	    end = string + strlen ((char *) string);
-	    next = end;
+	    c = *string++;
+	    if(c == '\0' || c == '|')
+		break; /* end of this code */
+	    lang[i] = c;
 	}
-	else
-	    next = end + 1;
-	if (end - string < sizeof (lang) - 1)
-	{
-	    strncpy ((char *) lang, (char *) string, end - string);
-	    lang[end-string] = '\0';
-	    if (!FcLangSetAdd (ls, lang))
-		goto bail1;
-	}
-	string = next;
+	lang[i] = '\0';
+	if (!FcLangSetAdd (ls, lang))
+	    goto bail1;
+	if(c == '\0')
+	    break;
     }
     return ls;
 bail1: