diff --git a/src/include/compat/wchar.h b/src/include/compat/wchar.h
index 46b797fb..a0dc4d1f 100644
--- a/src/include/compat/wchar.h
+++ b/src/include/compat/wchar.h
@@ -32,7 +32,4 @@
 
 #include <ucd/ucd.h>
 
-#define towlower ucd_tolower
-#define towupper ucd_toupper
-
 #endif
diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/readclause.c b/src/libespeak-ng/readclause.c
index 719ed91a..ef8da7d1 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/readclause.c
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/readclause.c
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ int towlower2(unsigned int c)
 	if (c == 'I' && translator->langopts.dotless_i)
 		return 0x131; // I -> ı
 
-	return towlower(c);
+	return ucd_tolower(c);
 }
 
 static int IsRomanU(unsigned int c)
@@ -842,7 +842,7 @@ static int attrnumber(const wchar_t *pw, int default_value, int type)
 
 	while (IsDigit09(*pw))
 		value = value*10 + *pw++ - '0';
-	if ((type == 1) && (towlower(*pw) == 's')) {
+	if ((type == 1) && (ucd_tolower(*pw) == 's')) {
 		// time: seconds rather than ms
 		value *= 1000;
 	}
diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/translate.c b/src/libespeak-ng/translate.c
index abecc5fc..780d4486 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/translate.c
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/translate.c
@@ -1791,13 +1791,13 @@ static int SubstituteChar(Translator *tr, unsigned int c, unsigned int next_in,
 		// don't convert the case of the second character unless the next letter is also upper case
 		c2 = new_c >> 16;
 		if (upper_case && iswupper(next_in))
-			c2 = towupper(c2);
+			c2 = ucd_toupper(c2);
 		*insert = c2;
 		new_c &= 0xffff;
 	}
 
 	if (upper_case)
-		new_c = towupper(new_c);
+		new_c = ucd_toupper(new_c);
 
 	*wordflags |= FLAG_CHAR_REPLACED;
 	return new_c;
diff --git a/src/ucd-tools/tests/printcdata.c b/src/ucd-tools/tests/printcdata.c
index 6992bb94..1cb96929 100644
--- a/src/ucd-tools/tests/printcdata.c
+++ b/src/ucd-tools/tests/printcdata.c
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ void uprintf(FILE *out, codepoint_t c, const char *format)
 			uprintf_is(out, c, *++format);
 			break;
 		case 'L': /* lowercase */
-			uprintf_codepoint(out, towlower(c), *++format);
+			uprintf_codepoint(out, ucd_tolower(c), *++format);
 			break;
 		case 's': /* script */
 			fputs(ucd_get_script_string(ucd_lookup_script(c)), out);
@@ -187,7 +187,7 @@ void uprintf(FILE *out, codepoint_t c, const char *format)
 			uprintf_codepoint(out, ucd_totitle(c), *++format);
 			break;
 		case 'U': /* uppercase */
-			uprintf_codepoint(out, towupper(c), *++format);
+			uprintf_codepoint(out, ucd_toupper(c), *++format);
 			break;
 		}
 		++format;