diff --git a/src/language/language_type.rs b/src/language/language_type.rs
index bffdf7a..86c9f94 100644
--- a/src/language/language_type.rs
+++ b/src/language/language_type.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 use std::{
     borrow::Cow,
-    fmt,
+    fmt, fs,
     fs::File,
     io::{self, Read},
     path::{Path, PathBuf},
@@ -38,17 +38,29 @@ impl LanguageType {
     /// on success and giving back ownership of [`PathBuf`] on error.
     pub fn parse(self, path: PathBuf, config: &Config) -> Result<Report, (io::Error, PathBuf)> {
         let text = {
-            let f = match File::open(&path) {
-                Ok(f) => f,
+            // fs::read pre-sizes from metadata and skips buffer zeroing;
+            // the decoding reader only matters when a BOM is present, so
+            // BOM-less files (the overwhelming majority) take the raw path.
+            // encoding_rs_io passes BOM-less input through unchanged, so
+            // both paths produce identical bytes.
+            let raw = match fs::read(&path) {
+                Ok(raw) => raw,
                 Err(e) => return Err((e, path)),
             };
-            let mut s = Vec::new();
-            let mut reader = DecodeReaderBytesBuilder::new().build(f);
-
-            if let Err(e) = reader.read_to_end(&mut s) {
-                return Err((e, path));
+            let has_bom = raw.starts_with(&[0xEF, 0xBB, 0xBF])
+                || raw.starts_with(&[0xFF, 0xFE])
+                || raw.starts_with(&[0xFE, 0xFF]);
+            if has_bom {
+                let mut s = Vec::new();
+                let mut reader =
+                    DecodeReaderBytesBuilder::new().build(io::Cursor::new(raw));
+                if let Err(e) = reader.read_to_end(&mut s) {
+                    return Err((e, path));
+                }
+                s
+            } else {
+                raw
             }
-            s
         };
 
         let mut stats = Report::new(path);