diff --git a/src/hunspell/hashmgr.cxx b/src/hunspell/hashmgr.cxx
index b8c6f5c..2df28c4 100644
--- a/src/hunspell/hashmgr.cxx
+++ b/src/hunspell/hashmgr.cxx
@@ -445,7 +445,7 @@
         ap = strchr(ap,'/');
     }
 
-    if (ap) {
+    if (ap && *ap != '\0') {
       *ap = '\0';
       if (aliasf) {
         int index = atoi(ap + 1);