diff --git a/src/wasm-tree-sitter-grammar.js b/src/wasm-tree-sitter-grammar.js
index 876355e6ba..35182f9a91 100644
--- a/src/wasm-tree-sitter-grammar.js
+++ b/src/wasm-tree-sitter-grammar.js
@@ -136,7 +136,12 @@ module.exports = class WASMTreeSitterGrammar {
   async getLanguage() {
     await parserInitPromise;
     if (!this._language) {
-      this._language = await Parser.Language.load(this.treeSitterGrammarPath);
+      try {
+        this._language = await Parser.Language.load(this.treeSitterGrammarPath);
+      } catch (err) {
+        console.error(`Error loading grammar for ${this.scopeName}; original error follows`);
+        throw err;
+      }
     }
 
     if (!this._queryFilesLoaded) {