diff --git a/panphon/featuretable.py b/panphon/featuretable.py
index 0800b79..7ca3369 100644
--- a/panphon/featuretable.py
+++ b/panphon/featuretable.py
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ def normalize(data: str) -> str:
     def _read_bases(self, fn: str, weights):
         fn = pkg_resources.resource_filename(__name__, fn)
         segments = []
-        with open(fn) as f:
+        with open(fn, encoding='utf-8') as f:
             reader = csv.reader(f)
             header = next(reader)
             names = header[1:]