diff --git a/GNUmakefile b/GNUmakefile
index 98eb1fa..40ebc38 100644
--- a/GNUmakefile
+++ b/GNUmakefile
@@ -170,12 +170,11 @@ 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
-CPPFLAGS=
+CFLAGS+=-fPIC -W -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations
 
 INCLUDES=-Iinclude
 
-all: snowball$(EXEEXT) libstemmer.a stemwords$(EXEEXT) $(C_OTHER_SOURCES) $(C_OTHER_HEADERS) $(C_OTHER_OBJECTS)
+all: snowball$(EXEEXT) libstemmer.a libstemmer.so stemwords$(EXEEXT) $(C_OTHER_SOURCES) $(C_OTHER_HEADERS) $(C_OTHER_OBJECTS)
 
 algorithms.mk: libstemmer/mkalgorithms.pl libstemmer/modules.txt
 	libstemmer/mkalgorithms.pl algorithms.mk libstemmer/modules.txt
@@ -212,6 +212,9 @@ libstemmer/libstemmer.o: libstemmer/modules.h $(C_LIB_HEADERS)
 libstemmer.a: 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 $^
+
 examples/%.o: examples/%.c
 	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(INCLUDES) $(CPPFLAGS) -c -o $@ $<
 
diff --git a/libstemmer/symbol.map b/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:
+        *;
+};