diff --git a/gnu/packages/tex.scm b/gnu/packages/tex.scm
index 490d219677..f4e874ccfe 100644
--- a/gnu/packages/tex.scm
+++ b/gnu/packages/tex.scm
@@ -437,6 +437,31 @@ out to date by @code{unicode-letters.tex}. ")
 (define-public texlive-generic-unicode-data
   (deprecated-package "texlive-generic-unicode-data" texlive-unicode-data))
 
+(define-public texlive-hyphen-base
+  (package
+    (inherit (simple-texlive-package
+              "texlive-hyphen-base"
+              (list "/tex/generic/config/language.dat"
+                    "/tex/generic/config/language.dat.lua"
+                    "/tex/generic/config/language.def"
+                    "/tex/generic/config/language.us"
+                    "/tex/generic/config/language.us.def"
+                    "/tex/generic/config/language.us.lua"
+                    "/tex/generic/hyphen/dumyhyph.tex"
+                    "/tex/generic/hyphen/hyphen.tex"
+                    "/tex/generic/hyphen/hypht1.tex"
+                    "/tex/generic/hyphen/zerohyph.tex")
+              (base32
+               "002g5zhzbj3ikgg8zidagdp605ac9f4qmfl148mp0mbpz1svk0ni")
+              #:trivial? #t))
+    (home-page "https://tug.org/texlive/")
+    (synopsis "Core hyphenation support files")
+    (description "This package includes Knuth's original @file{hyphen.tex},
+@file{zerohyph.tex} to disable hyphenation, @file{language.us} which starts
+the autogenerated files @file{language.dat} and @file{language.def} (and
+default versions of those), etc.")
+    (license license:knuth)))
+
 (define-public texlive-dvips
   (package
     (name "texlive-dvips")