diff --git a/comphelper/source/misc/syntaxhighlight.cxx b/comphelper/source/misc/syntaxhighlight.cxx
index c1f4ca5f19ac..1995cd413d36 100644
--- a/comphelper/source/misc/syntaxhighlight.cxx
+++ b/comphelper/source/misc/syntaxhighlight.cxx
@@ -224,7 +224,7 @@ static const char* strListSqlKeyWords[] = {
 };
 
 
-static int compare_strings( const void *arg1, const void *arg2 )
+extern "C" int compare_strings( const void *arg1, const void *arg2 )
 {
     return strcmp( (char *)arg1, *(char **)arg2 );
 }