diff --git a/tests/languages.test b/tests/languages.test
index 5b8a4170..58188f8d 100755
--- a/tests/languages.test
+++ b/tests/languages.test
@@ -1,5 +1,24 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
+# Test a command for presence and ability to output the sha1 hash of a file.
+check_hashcmd() {
+	which $1 >&/dev/null &&
+	$1 </dev/null 2>/dev/null |
+	awk '{if ($1 != "da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709") { exit 1; }}'
+}
+
+# Test some common commands to find the correct one for the system being tested on.
+if check_hashcmd sha1sum; then
+	sha1sum=sha1sum
+elif check_hashcmd sha1; then
+	sha1sum=sha1
+elif check_hashcmd shasum; then
+	sha1sum=shasum
+else
+	echo "No hashing commands found."
+	false
+fi
+
 test_lang() {
 	if test "$#" -eq 3; then
 		TEST_LANG=$1
@@ -16,7 +35,7 @@ test_lang() {
 	echo "testing ${TEST_NAME}"
 	ESPEAK_DATA_PATH=`pwd` LD_LIBRARY_PATH=src:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH} \
 		src/espeak-ng --stdout -v ${TEST_LANG} "${TEST_TEXT}" | \
-		sha1sum | awk '{ print $1 }' > actual.txt
+		$sha1sum | awk '{ print $1 }' > actual.txt
 	echo "${EXPECTED}" > expected.txt
 	diff expected.txt actual.txt || exit 1
 }