diff --git a/pipeline/aggregate/blocks/language/LanguageStats.ts b/pipeline/aggregate/blocks/language/LanguageStats.ts
index cbf98ead..d516765e 100644
--- a/pipeline/aggregate/blocks/language/LanguageStats.ts
+++ b/pipeline/aggregate/blocks/language/LanguageStats.ts
@@ -43,7 +43,13 @@ const fn: BlockFn<LanguageStats> = (database, filters, common, args) => {
         .filter((lang) => lang.value < langThreshold)
         .reduce((sum, lang) => sum + lang.value, 0);
     const languageList = allLanguages.filter((lang) => lang.value >= langThreshold);
-    languageList.push({ index: 0, value: totalUnreliable });
+
+    // since langIndex can be 0 now, it can appear in languagesCount
+    // so we sum to the existing value or push it to the list if it doesn't exist
+    const utdIndex = languageList.findIndex((item) => item.index == 0);
+    if (utdIndex < 0) languageList.push({ index: 0, value: totalUnreliable });
+    else languageList[utdIndex].value += totalUnreliable;
+
     languageList.sort((a, b) => b.value - a.value);
 
     return {
diff --git a/pipeline/process/MessageProcessor.ts b/pipeline/process/MessageProcessor.ts
index 4521ba45..06e38665 100644
--- a/pipeline/process/MessageProcessor.ts
+++ b/pipeline/process/MessageProcessor.ts
@@ -49,16 +49,28 @@ export class MessageProcessor {
 
         // detect language in the whole group text
         // this yields better accuracy
-        let langIndex: number | undefined;
-        if (allText.length > 0) {
-            langIndex = this.langPredictModel!.identifyLanguage(allText).iso639index;
+        let langIndex: number = 0; // 0 = "Unreliable to detect"
+
+        // See https://github.com/mlomb/chat-analytics/pull/110
+        const accuracy_threshold = 0; // language model accuracy must be at least this high (0-1)
+        const word_count_threshold = 1; // must have at least this many words for language detection
+        const word_count: number = tokenizations
+            .map((msg) => msg.reduce((sum, token) => (token.tag == "word" ? sum + 1 : sum), 0)) // sum the number of words per message
+            .reduce((sum, len) => sum + len, 0); // sum the number of words in all messages in the group
+
+        if (word_count >= word_count_threshold) {
+            const result = this.langPredictModel!.identifyLanguage(allText);
+
+            if (result.accuracy >= accuracy_threshold) {
+                langIndex = result.iso639index;
+            }
         }
 
         return group.map((message, index) => this.processMessage(message, tokenizations[index], langIndex));
     }
 
     /** Process the given message. Also takes the tokens for the message, and other information. */
-    private processMessage(msg: PMessage, tokens: Token[], langIndex: number | undefined): Message {
+    private processMessage(msg: PMessage, tokens: Token[], langIndex: number): Message {
         const wordsCount = new IndexCountsBuilder();
         const emojisCount = new IndexCountsBuilder();
         const mentionsCount = new IndexCountsBuilder();
@@ -114,10 +126,8 @@ export class MessageProcessor {
         }
 
         // sentiment analysis
-        let sentiment = 0;
-        if (langIndex) {
-            sentiment = this.sentiment?.calculate(tokens, langIndex) || 0;
-        }
+        // note that if langIndex is 0 (no language), the following line will return undefined (as expected)
+        const sentiment = this.sentiment?.calculate(tokens, langIndex);
 
         let replyOffset: number | undefined = undefined;
         if (msg.replyTo) {
@@ -147,7 +157,7 @@ export class MessageProcessor {
             authorIndex: this.builder.authors.getIndex(msg.authorId)!,
             replyOffset,
             langIndex,
-            sentiment: langIndex !== undefined ? sentiment : undefined,
+            sentiment,
             words: wordsCount.toArray(),
             emojis: emojisCount.toArray(),
             mentions: mentionsCount.toArray(),
diff --git a/report/components/cards/language/LanguageStatsTable.tsx b/report/components/cards/language/LanguageStatsTable.tsx
index ed6816aa..85c39c71 100644
--- a/report/components/cards/language/LanguageStatsTable.tsx
+++ b/report/components/cards/language/LanguageStatsTable.tsx
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ const LanguageStatsTable = () => {
                     depth: 1,
                     tooltip:
                         language.index === 0
-                            ? "Messages that did not have enough text to reliable detect the language"
+                            ? "Messages that did not have enough text to reliably detect the language"
                             : undefined,
                 } as Line)
         ) ?? []),