diff --git a/config/aws.json b/config/aws.json
index fbeab0071a2d2a20c249139da1a07d57ba7d9e17..398f5fe505999add65c7be09ddbe51073fb153e9 100644
--- a/config/aws.json
+++ b/config/aws.json
@@ -18,9 +18,7 @@
   "max_compute_duration": 10,
   "disable_primary_support": false,
   "enable_code_version": false,
-  "default_lang": [
-    "en-US"
-  ],
+  "default_lang": "en-US",
   // for amazon deployments, enable it-CH which is the trigger language
   // for localization tests db-LB (which is a testing language where chars
   // are inverted and reversed), and en-US.
diff --git a/config/dev.json b/config/dev.json
index ce92da650faff9edd249eafb9464f21ba4345299..3ef84b7cacf2a83df14ed6c32b58e1a29d0179f0 100644
--- a/config/dev.json
+++ b/config/dev.json
@@ -22,9 +22,7 @@
   "max_compute_duration": 10,
   "disable_primary_support": false,
   "enable_code_version": false,
-  "default_lang": [
-    "en-US"
-  ],
+  "default_lang": "en-US",
   "locale_directory": "/home/browserid/code/locale",
   "supported_languages": [
     "af", "ca", "cs", "db-LB", "de", "en-US", "eo", "es", "es-MX", "eu", "fr",