diff --git a/spacy/language_data/emoticons.py b/spacy/language_data/emoticons.py
index df4941cc2..bb489a137 100644
--- a/spacy/language_data/emoticons.py
+++ b/spacy/language_data/emoticons.py
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# encoding: utf8
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
 EMOTICONS = set("""
 
 :)