diff --git c/GNUmakefile i/GNUmakefile
index 1693f5a..b33a42e 100644
--- c/GNUmakefile
+++ i/GNUmakefile
@@ -112,10 +112,10 @@ C_OTHER_OBJECTS = $(C_OTHER_SOURCES:.c=.o)
 JAVA_CLASSES = $(JAVA_SOURCES:.java=.class)
 JAVA_RUNTIME_CLASSES=$(JAVARUNTIME_SOURCES:.java=.class)
 
-CFLAGS=-O2 -W -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations
+CFLAGS=-O2 -fPIC -W -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations
 CPPFLAGS=-Iinclude
 
-all: snowball libstemmer.o stemwords $(C_OTHER_SOURCES) $(C_OTHER_HEADERS) $(C_OTHER_OBJECTS)
+all: snowball libstemmer.o libstemmer.so stemwords $(C_OTHER_SOURCES) $(C_OTHER_HEADERS) $(C_OTHER_OBJECTS)
 
 clean:
 	rm -f $(COMPILER_OBJECTS) $(RUNTIME_OBJECTS) \
@@ -158,6 +158,9 @@ libstemmer/libstemmer.o: libstemmer/modules.h $(C_LIB_HEADERS)
 libstemmer.o: libstemmer/libstemmer.o $(RUNTIME_OBJECTS) $(C_LIB_OBJECTS)
 	$(AR) -cru $@ $^
 
+libstemmer.so: libstemmer/libstemmer.o $(RUNTIME_OBJECTS) $(C_LIB_OBJECTS)
+	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -shared $(LDFLAGS) -Wl,-soname,libstemmer.so.0,-version-script,libstemmer/symbol.map -o $@.0.0.0 $^
+
 stemwords: $(STEMWORDS_OBJECTS) libstemmer.o
 	$(CC) -o $@ $^
 
diff --git c/libstemmer/symbol.map i/libstemmer/symbol.map
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7a3d423
--- /dev/null
+++ i/libstemmer/symbol.map
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+SB_STEMMER_0 {
+    global:
+        sb_stemmer_*;
+    local:
+        *;
+};