diff --git a/scripts/package.sh b/scripts/package.sh
index 008803cac9..23d0925b05 100755
--- a/scripts/package.sh
+++ b/scripts/package.sh
@@ -14,11 +14,7 @@ else
 fi
 
 npm run clean
-# riot-web is at `workspace`.
-# matrix-react-sdk is at `workspace/node_modules/matrix-react-sdk`, but this is
-# symlinked to a repo at `workspace/matrix-react-sdk`.
-# To get from `workspace/matrix-react-sdk/lib` up to the lang file, we use:
-RIOT_LANGUAGES_FILE="../../webapp/i18n/languages.json" npm run build$dev
+npm run build$dev
 
 # include the sample config in the tarball. Arguably this should be done by
 # `npm run build`, but it's just too painful.
diff --git a/webpack.config.js b/webpack.config.js
index 70ef0574a7..9cdc9cae45 100644
--- a/webpack.config.js
+++ b/webpack.config.js
@@ -6,12 +6,6 @@ const HtmlWebpackPlugin = require('html-webpack-plugin');
 let og_image_url = process.env.RIOT_OG_IMAGE_URL;
 if (!og_image_url) og_image_url = 'https://riot.im/app/themes/riot/img/logos/riot-im-logo-black-text.png';
 
-// relative to languageHandler.js in matrix-react-sdk
-let RIOT_LANGUAGES_FILE = process.env.RIOT_LANGUAGES_FILE;
-if (!RIOT_LANGUAGES_FILE) {
-    RIOT_LANGUAGES_FILE = "../../riot-web/webapp/i18n/languages.json";
-}
-
 module.exports = {
     entry: {
         // Load babel-polyfill first to avoid issues where some imports (namely react)
@@ -157,6 +151,8 @@ module.exports = {
 
             // same goes for js-sdk
             "matrix-js-sdk": path.resolve('./node_modules/matrix-js-sdk'),
+
+            "$webapp": path.resolve('./webapp'),
         },
     },
     plugins: [
@@ -164,7 +160,6 @@ module.exports = {
             'process.env': {
                 NODE_ENV: JSON.stringify(process.env.NODE_ENV),
             },
-            'LANGUAGES_FILE': JSON.stringify(RIOT_LANGUAGES_FILE),
         }),
         new ExtractTextPlugin("bundles/[hash]/[name].css", {
             allChunks: true,