diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index cc8044ff..a99dc070 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -63,11 +63,19 @@ if test "$with_portaudio" = "no"; then
 else
     AC_CHECK_HEADERS([portaudio.h],
         [
-            AC_CHECK_LIB([portaudio], [Pa_IsStreamActive],
+            # Check the portaudio library.
+            AC_CHECK_LIB([portaudio], [Pa_IsStreamActive]) # portaudio 19
+            AC_CHECK_LIB([portaudio], [Pa_StreamActive])   # portaudio 18
+
+            # Then use the headers to determine the portaudio version.
+            # This is because on some systems with both libportaudio0 and
+            # libportaudio2 installed, portaudio.h and -lportaudio refer
+            # to different versions.
+            AC_CHECK_FUNC([Pa_IsStreamActive],
                 [
                     have_portaudio=19
                 ],[
-                    AC_CHECK_LIB([portaudio], [Pa_StreamActive],
+                    AC_CHECK_FUNC([Pa_StreamActive],
                         [
                             have_portaudio=18
                         ],[
diff --git a/src/speak_lib.cpp b/src/speak_lib.cpp
index dfbbd687..4e609411 100644
--- a/src/speak_lib.cpp
+++ b/src/speak_lib.cpp
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 /***************************************************************************
  *   Copyright (C) 2005 to 2013 by Jonathan Duddington                     *
  *   email: jonsd@users.sourceforge.net                                    *
+ *   Copyright (C) 2013 Reece H. Dunn                                      *
  *                                                                         *
  *   This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify  *
  *   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by  *
@@ -723,7 +724,7 @@ void sync_espeak_SetPunctuationList(const wchar_t *punctlist)
 	my_unique_identifier = 0;
 	my_user_data = NULL;
 
-	wcsncpy(option_punctlist, punctlist, N_PUNCTLIST);
+	wcsncpy(option_punctlist, punctlist ? punctlist : L"", N_PUNCTLIST);
 	option_punctlist[N_PUNCTLIST-1] = 0;
 }  //  end of sync_espeak_SetPunctuationList