diff --git a/phpgwapi/inc/class.translation_sql.inc.php b/phpgwapi/inc/class.translation_sql.inc.php
index 2ca18feb34..bf6dab9889 100644
--- a/phpgwapi/inc/class.translation_sql.inc.php
+++ b/phpgwapi/inc/class.translation_sql.inc.php
@@ -248,7 +248,14 @@
 		{
 			if (!is_array($this->charsets))
 			{
-				$this->db->query("SELECT DISTINCT l.lang,lx.lang_name,l.content AS charset FROM phpgw_lang l,phpgw_languages lx WHERE l.lang = lx.lang_id AND l.message_id='charset'",__LINE__,__FILE__);
+				$distinct = 'DISTINCT';
+				switch($this->db->Type)
+				{
+					case 'sapdb': case 'maxdb':
+					case 'mssql':
+						$distinct = '';	// cant use distinct on text columns (l.content is text)
+				}
+				$this->db->query("SELECT $distinct l.lang,lx.lang_name,l.content AS charset FROM phpgw_lang l,phpgw_languages lx WHERE l.lang = lx.lang_id AND l.message_id='charset'",__LINE__,__FILE__);
 				if (!$this->db->num_rows())
 				{
 					return False;
@@ -256,8 +263,11 @@
 				while ($this->db->next_record())
 				{
 					$data = &$this->charsets[$charset = strtolower($this->db->f('charset'))];
-					$data .= ($data ? ', ' : $charset.': ').
-						$this->db->f('lang_name').' ('.$this->db->f('lang').')';
+					$lang = $this->db->f('lang_name').' ('.$this->db->f('lang').')';
+					if ($distinct || strstr($data,$lang) === false)
+					{
+						$data .= ($data ? ', ' : $charset.': ').$lang;
+					}						
 				}
 			}
 			return $this->charsets;