diff --git a/bin/miaou-bash b/bin/miaou-bash
index a7eae70..126c3ba 100755
--- a/bin/miaou-bash
+++ b/bin/miaou-bash
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
+# shellcheck source=/dev/null
+
+# SHEBANG alternative:
 #!/usr/bin/env -S -- bash -x
 
 # constants
@@ -632,20 +635,24 @@ function read {
 }
 
 function load_locale {
-  MIAOU_LOCALE="${LANG%%_*}" # Get 'fr' from 'fr_FR.UTF-8'
-  if [[ $MIAOU_LOCALE =~ en|es|fr ]]; then
-    miaou_debug "<load_locale language=$MIAOU_LOCALE LANG=$LANG/>"
-  else
-    # fallback C/POSIX => en.sh
+  miaou_debug "<load_locale LANG=$LANG>"
+  MIAOU_LOCALE="${LANG:0:2}" # Get 'fr' from 'fr_FR.UTF-8'
+  case "$MIAOU_LOCALE" in
+  en) LANG=en_US.utf8 ;;
+  es) LANG=es_ES.utf8 ;;
+  fr) LANG=fr_FR.utf8 ;;
+  *)
+    miaou_debug "<fallback LANG=$LANG convert_to=C/>"
     MIAOU_LOCALE=en
-    miaou_debug "<load_locale fallback=$MIAOU_LOCALE LANG=$LANG convert_to=C/>"
     LANG=C
-    export LANG
-  fi
-  local locale_file
-  locale_file="${MIAOU_BASH_DIR}/locales/${MIAOU_LOCALE}.sh"
-  # shellcheck source=/dev/null
-  source "$locale_file"
+    ;;
+  esac
+  export LANG
+  unset LANGUAGE LC_ALL LC_MESSAGES
+  local translation="${MIAOU_BASH_DIR}/locales/${MIAOU_LOCALE}.sh"
+  miaou_debug "<resource file=$translation/>"
+  source "$translation"
+  miaou_debug "</load_locale MIAOU_LOCALE=$MIAOU_LOCALE>"
 }
 
 ## main