diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/omorfi/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/omorfi/default.nix
index d6d0f1741d17..6002ea464673 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/omorfi/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/omorfi/default.nix
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 , autoreconfHook
 , cg3
 , fetchFromGitHub
+, fetchpatch
 , hfst
 , hfst-ospell
 , icu
@@ -24,6 +25,16 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     hash = "sha256-UoqdwNWCNOPX6u1YBlnXUcB/fmcvcy/HXbYciVrMBOY=";
   };
 
+  patches = [
+    # allow building with python311.
+    # patch is incorporated upstream and should be removed on the next update
+    (fetchpatch {
+      name = "python311.patch";
+      url = "https://github.com/flammie/omorfi/commit/9736452ae6624060dbea0876a722c3731e776357.patch";
+      hash = "sha256-Q4fi5HMmO0fq8YI833vgv2EYp//9Um/xFoRk28WrUMk=";
+    })
+  ];
+
   # Fix for omorfi-hyphenate.sh file not found error
   postInstall = ''
     ln -s $out/share/omorfi/{omorfi.hyphenate-rules.hfst,omorfi.hyphenate.hfst}