diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 608493339..8f96bea10 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 2001-09-19  Pavel Roskin  <proski@gnu.org>
 
+	* lib/edit.spell.rc: Try aspell before resorting to ispell.
+
 	* syntax/php.syntax: Replace with a better implementation by
 	Max Schedriviy <max@tavrida.net>
 
diff --git a/lib/edit.spell.rc b/lib/edit.spell.rc
index 122e49f74..2bd91cc53 100644
--- a/lib/edit.spell.rc
+++ b/lib/edit.spell.rc
@@ -5,4 +5,8 @@
 #       $2 - highlight block file name
 #	$3 - error file name
 
-ispell "$2" 2>"$3"
+if aspell </dev/null >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  aspell -c "$2" 2>"$3"
+else
+  ispell "$2" 2>"$3"
+fi