diff --git a/phpgwapi/inc/class.translation.inc.php b/phpgwapi/inc/class.translation.inc.php
index d7619bbda0..09c8ba7366 100644
--- a/phpgwapi/inc/class.translation.inc.php
+++ b/phpgwapi/inc/class.translation.inc.php
@@ -252,8 +252,13 @@ class translation
 			// for loginscreen we have to use a instance specific cache!
 			$loaded =& egw_cache::getCache(in_array($app,self::$instance_specific_translations) ? egw_cache::INSTANCE : egw_cache::TREE,
 				__CLASS__,$app.':'.$lang,array(__CLASS__,'load_app'),array($app,$lang));
-
-			self::$lang_arr += $loaded;	// use += instead of array_merge, as we have phrases with numerical index, which get renumbered by array_merge
+			foreach(array_keys($loaded) as $key)
+			{
+				// as array_merge does renumber, and the padding of the loaded langs to the existing langs does lead to strange phenomenons 
+				// regarding the mainscreen_message, we do that the old fashioned way.
+				if (!empty($loaded[$key])) self::$lang_arr[$key] = $loaded[$key];
+			}
+			//self::$lang_arr += $loaded;	// use += instead of array_merge, as we have phrases with numerical index, which get renumbered by array_merge
 			self::$loaded_apps[$app] = $lang;
 			//error_log(__METHOD__."($app,$lang) took ".(1000*(microtime(true)-$start))." ms, loaded ".count($loaded)." phrases -> total=".count(self::$lang_arr).": ".function_backtrace());
 		}