diff --git a/bundles/org.eclipse.epsilon.emc.rdf/src/org/eclipse/epsilon/emc/rdf/RDFModel.java b/bundles/org.eclipse.epsilon.emc.rdf/src/org/eclipse/epsilon/emc/rdf/RDFModel.java
index 3fc5175..cc94f27 100644
--- a/bundles/org.eclipse.epsilon.emc.rdf/src/org/eclipse/epsilon/emc/rdf/RDFModel.java
+++ b/bundles/org.eclipse.epsilon.emc.rdf/src/org/eclipse/epsilon/emc/rdf/RDFModel.java
@@ -160,8 +160,10 @@ public void load(StringProperties properties, IRelativePathResolver resolver) th
 		}
 		
 		this.languagePreference.clear();
-		for (String tag : properties.getProperty(PROPERTY_LANGUAGE_PREFERENCE).split(",")) {
-			this.languagePreference.add(tag.strip());
+		if (!properties.getProperty(PROPERTY_LANGUAGE_PREFERENCE).isEmpty()) {	
+			for (String tag : properties.getProperty(PROPERTY_LANGUAGE_PREFERENCE).split(",")) {
+				this.languagePreference.add(tag.strip());
+			}
 		}
 
 		load();
@@ -311,6 +313,7 @@ public Map<String, String> getCustomPrefixesMap() {
 	}
 	
 	public List<String> getLanguagePreference() {
+		System.out.println("returning: " +languagePreference);
 		return languagePreference;
 	}