diff --git a/lib/extract.js b/lib/extract.js
index 60e1f60..d2c3d62 100644
--- a/lib/extract.js
+++ b/lib/extract.js
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 var cheerio = require('cheerio');
 var Po = require('pofile');
 var esprima = require('esprima');
+var langDetect = require('language-detect');
+var langMap = require('language-map');
 var _ = require('lodash');
 
 var escapeRegex = /[\-\[\]\/\{\}\(\)\*\+\?\.\\\^\$\|]/g;
@@ -58,15 +60,7 @@ var Extractor = (function () {
             markerName: 'gettext',
             markerNames: [],
             lineNumbers: true,
-            extensions: {
-                htm: 'html',
-                html: 'html',
-                php: 'html',
-                phtml: 'html',
-                tml: 'html',
-                erb: 'html',
-                js: 'js'
-            },
+            extensions: {},
             postProcess: function (po) {}
         }, options);
         this.options.markerNames.unshift(this.options.markerName);
@@ -283,13 +277,26 @@ var Extractor = (function () {
     };
 
     Extractor.prototype.parse = function (filename, content) {
+        // check list of supported extensions
         var extension = filename.split('.').pop();
-
         if (this.isSupportedByStrategy('html', extension)) {
-            this.extractHtml(filename, content);
+            return this.extractHtml(filename, content);
+        } else if (this.isSupportedByStrategy('js', extension)) {
+            return this.extractJs(filename, content);
         }
-        if (this.isSupportedByStrategy('js', extension)) {
+
+        // better language detection when all else fails
+        var lang = langDetect.filename(filename) || langDetect.classify(content);
+        if (lang === 'JavaScript') {
             this.extractJs(filename, content);
+        } else {
+            var langAttrs = langMap[lang];
+            if (langAttrs.type === 'markup' || // covers HTML, most templating langs, and XML
+                lang === 'PHP' ||
+                extension.indexOf('html') !== -1) /* .cshtml */ {
+
+                this.extractHtml(filename, content);
+            }
         }
     };
 
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index b3858c4..46ac9a8 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@
   "dependencies": {
     "cheerio": "~0.18.0",
     "esprima": "~1.1.1",
+    "language-detect": "^1.0.0",
+    "language-map": "^1.0.0",
     "lodash": "~2.4.1",
     "pofile": "~0.2.8"
   }