diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/dictionary.c b/src/libespeak-ng/dictionary.c
index ffbe90d1..3b16155c 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/dictionary.c
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/dictionary.c
@@ -231,7 +231,10 @@ int LoadDictionary(Translator *tr, const char *name, int no_error)
 		return 1;
 	}
 
-	tr->data_dictlist = Alloc(size);
+	if ((tr->data_dictlist = malloc(size)) == NULL) {
+		fclose(f);
+		return 3;
+	}
 	size = fread(tr->data_dictlist, 1, size, f);
 	fclose(f);
 
diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/speech.c b/src/libespeak-ng/speech.c
index c34db6b8..3448dc68 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/speech.c
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/speech.c
@@ -251,18 +251,6 @@ int GetFileLength(const char *filename)
 	return statbuf.st_size;
 }
 
-#pragma GCC visibility pop
-
-char *Alloc(int size)
-{
-	char *p;
-	if ((p = (char *)malloc(size)) == NULL)
-		fprintf(stderr, "Can't allocate memory\n"); // I was told that size+1 fixes a crash on 64-bit systems
-	return p;
-}
-
-#pragma GCC visibility push(default)
-
 ESPEAK_NG_API void espeak_ng_InitializePath(const char *path)
 {
 	if (path != NULL) {
diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/speech.h b/src/libespeak-ng/speech.h
index dadbfeb1..32cb334b 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/speech.h
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/speech.h
@@ -69,7 +69,6 @@ extern char path_home[N_PATH_HOME];    // this is the espeak-data directory
 
 extern ESPEAK_NG_API void strncpy0(char *to, const char *from, int size);
 extern ESPEAK_NG_API int  GetFileLength(const char *filename);
-char *Alloc(int size);
 
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 }
diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/synthdata.c b/src/libespeak-ng/synthdata.c
index 8c4a77fb..d647ebb6 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/synthdata.c
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/synthdata.c
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ static espeak_ng_STATUS ReadPhFile(void **ptr, const char *fname, int *size, esp
 	if (*ptr != NULL)
 		free(*ptr);
 
-	if ((*ptr = Alloc(length)) == NULL) {
+	if ((*ptr = malloc(length)) == NULL) {
 		fclose(f_in);
 		return ENOMEM;
 	}
@@ -411,7 +411,6 @@ void LoadConfig(void)
 	FILE *f;
 	int ix;
 	char c1;
-	char *p;
 	char string[200];
 
 	for (ix = 0; ix < N_SOUNDICON_SLOTS; ix++) {
@@ -434,9 +433,7 @@ void LoadConfig(void)
 			ix = sscanf(&buf[10], "_%c %s", &c1, string);
 			if (ix == 2) {
 				soundicon_tab[n_soundicon_tab].name = c1;
-				p = Alloc(strlen(string)+1);
-				strcpy(p, string);
-				soundicon_tab[n_soundicon_tab].filename = p;
+				soundicon_tab[n_soundicon_tab].filename = strdup(string);
 				soundicon_tab[n_soundicon_tab++].length = 0;
 			}
 		}
diff --git a/src/libespeak-ng/tr_languages.c b/src/libespeak-ng/tr_languages.c
index 5b73a4e8..e5ed9ffb 100644
--- a/src/libespeak-ng/tr_languages.c
+++ b/src/libespeak-ng/tr_languages.c
@@ -220,8 +220,7 @@ static Translator *NewTranslator(void)
 		 0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0,  0, 55,  0, 56,  0, 57,  0, // 0x170
 	};
 
-	tr = (Translator *)Alloc(sizeof(Translator));
-	if (tr == NULL)
+	if ((tr = (Translator *)malloc(sizeof(Translator))) == NULL)
 		return NULL;
 
 	tr->charset_a0 = charsets[1]; // ISO-8859-1, this is for when the input is not utf8