diff --git a/Lib/locale.py b/Lib/locale.py
index ae6e55b3c41..bf799529a46 100644
--- a/Lib/locale.py
+++ b/Lib/locale.py
@@ -285,7 +285,7 @@ def _parse_localename(localename):
             return code, 'iso-8859-15'
 
     if '.' in code:
-        return code.split('.')[:2]
+        return tuple(code.split('.')[:2])
     elif code == 'C':
         return None, None
     raise ValueError, 'unknown locale: %s' % localename