diff --git a/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/code/docs/http/scaladsl/server/directives/MiscDirectivesExamplesSpec.scala b/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/code/docs/http/scaladsl/server/directives/MiscDirectivesExamplesSpec.scala
index de73fb91ec..eacabc5f86 100644
--- a/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/code/docs/http/scaladsl/server/directives/MiscDirectivesExamplesSpec.scala
+++ b/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/code/docs/http/scaladsl/server/directives/MiscDirectivesExamplesSpec.scala
@@ -58,6 +58,25 @@ class MiscDirectivesExamplesSpec extends RoutingSpec {
       responseAs[String] shouldEqual "request entity empty"
     }
   }
+  "selectPreferredLanguage-example" in {
+    val request = Get() ~> `Accept-Language`(
+      Language("en-US"),
+      Language("en") withQValue 0.7f,
+      LanguageRange.`*` withQValue 0.1f,
+      Language("de") withQValue 0.5f)
+
+    request ~> {
+      selectPreferredLanguage("en", "en-US") { lang ⇒
+        complete(lang.toString)
+      }
+    } ~> check { responseAs[String] shouldEqual "en-US" }
+
+    request ~> {
+      selectPreferredLanguage("de-DE", "hu") { lang ⇒
+        complete(lang.toString)
+      }
+    } ~> check { responseAs[String] shouldEqual "de-DE" }
+  }
   "validate-example" in {
     val route =
       extractUri { uri =>
diff --git a/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/http/routing-dsl/directives/alphabetically.rst b/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/http/routing-dsl/directives/alphabetically.rst
index 276f7dc681..86a93aa8c4 100644
--- a/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/http/routing-dsl/directives/alphabetically.rst
+++ b/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/http/routing-dsl/directives/alphabetically.rst
@@ -197,6 +197,8 @@ Directive                                   Description
 :ref:`-responseEncodingAccepted-`           Rejects the request with an ``UnacceptedResponseEncodingRejection`` if the
                                             given response encoding is not accepted by the client
 :ref:`-scheme-`                             Rejects all requests whose URI scheme doesn't match the given one
+:ref:`-selectPreferredLanguage-`            Inspects the request's ``Accept-Language`` header and determines, which of
+                                            a given set of language alternatives is preferred by the client
 :ref:`-setCookie-`                          Adds a ``Set-Cookie`` response header with the given cookies
 :ref:`-textract-`                           Extracts a number of values using a ``RequestContext ⇒ Tuple`` function
 :ref:`-tprovide-`                           Injects a given tuple of values into a directive
diff --git a/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/http/routing-dsl/directives/misc-directives/index.rst b/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/http/routing-dsl/directives/misc-directives/index.rst
index ecbd69f162..73837a2350 100644
--- a/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/http/routing-dsl/directives/misc-directives/index.rst
+++ b/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/http/routing-dsl/directives/misc-directives/index.rst
@@ -10,4 +10,5 @@ MiscDirectives
    rejectEmptyResponse
    requestEntityEmpty
    requestEntityPresent
+   selectPreferredLanguage
    validate
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/http/routing-dsl/directives/misc-directives/selectPreferredLanguage.rst b/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/http/routing-dsl/directives/misc-directives/selectPreferredLanguage.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5b5b6647c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/akka-docs-dev/rst/scala/http/routing-dsl/directives/misc-directives/selectPreferredLanguage.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+.. _-selectPreferredLanguage-:
+
+selectPreferredLanguage
+=======================
+
+Signature
+---------
+
+.. includecode2:: /../../akka-http/src/main/scala/akka/http/scaladsl/server/directives/MiscDirectives.scala
+   :snippet: selectPreferredLanguage
+
+Description
+-----------
+Inspects the request's ``Accept-Language`` header and determines,
+which of a given set of language alternatives is preferred by the client according to content negotiation rules
+defined by http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231#section-5.3.5.
+
+If there are several best language alternatives that the client has equal preference for
+(even if this preference is zero!) the order of the arguments is used as a tie breaker (first one wins).
+
+Example
+-------
+
+.. includecode2:: ../../../../code/docs/http/scaladsl/server/directives/MiscDirectivesExamplesSpec.scala
+  :snippet: selectPreferredLanguage-example
diff --git a/akka-http-tests/src/test/scala/akka/http/scaladsl/server/directives/MiscDirectivesSpec.scala b/akka-http-tests/src/test/scala/akka/http/scaladsl/server/directives/MiscDirectivesSpec.scala
index 3c4b066e40..deacba2401 100644
--- a/akka-http-tests/src/test/scala/akka/http/scaladsl/server/directives/MiscDirectivesSpec.scala
+++ b/akka-http-tests/src/test/scala/akka/http/scaladsl/server/directives/MiscDirectivesSpec.scala
@@ -5,11 +5,11 @@
 package akka.http.scaladsl.server
 package directives
 
+import scala.concurrent.{ Await, Promise }
+import scala.concurrent.duration._
+import scala.util.Try
 import akka.http.scaladsl.model._
 import headers._
-import HttpMethods._
-import MediaTypes._
-import Uri._
 
 class MiscDirectivesSpec extends RoutingSpec {
 
@@ -30,4 +30,63 @@ class MiscDirectivesSpec extends RoutingSpec {
       } ~> check { responseAs[String] shouldEqual "1.2.3.4" }
     }
   }
+
+  "the selectPreferredLanguage directive" should {
+    "Accept-Language: de, en" test { selectFrom ⇒
+      selectFrom("de", "en") shouldEqual "de"
+      selectFrom("en", "de") shouldEqual "de"
+    }
+    "Accept-Language: en, de" test { selectFrom ⇒
+      selectFrom("de", "en") shouldEqual "en"
+      selectFrom("en", "de") shouldEqual "en"
+    }
+    "Accept-Language: en, de;q=.5" test { selectFrom ⇒
+      selectFrom("de", "en") shouldEqual "en"
+      selectFrom("en", "de") shouldEqual "en"
+    }
+    "Accept-Language: en;q=.5, de" test { selectFrom ⇒
+      selectFrom("de", "en") shouldEqual "de"
+      selectFrom("en", "de") shouldEqual "de"
+    }
+    "Accept-Language: en-US, en;q=.7, *;q=.1, de;q=.5" test { selectFrom ⇒
+      selectFrom("en", "en-US") shouldEqual "en-US"
+      selectFrom("de", "en") shouldEqual "en"
+      selectFrom("de", "hu") shouldEqual "de"
+      selectFrom("de-DE", "hu") shouldEqual "de-DE"
+      selectFrom("hu", "es") shouldEqual "hu"
+      selectFrom("es", "hu") shouldEqual "es"
+    }
+    "Accept-Language: en, *;q=.5, de;q=0" test { selectFrom ⇒
+      selectFrom("es", "de") shouldEqual "es"
+      selectFrom("de", "es") shouldEqual "es"
+      selectFrom("es", "en") shouldEqual "en"
+    }
+    "Accept-Language: en, *;q=0" test { selectFrom ⇒
+      selectFrom("es", "de") shouldEqual "es"
+      selectFrom("de", "es") shouldEqual "de"
+      selectFrom("es", "en") shouldEqual "en"
+    }
+  }
+
+  implicit class AddStringToIn(acceptLanguageHeaderString: String) {
+    def test(body: ((String*) ⇒ String) ⇒ Unit): Unit =
+      s"properly handle `$acceptLanguageHeaderString`" in {
+        val Array(name, value) = acceptLanguageHeaderString.split(':')
+        val acceptLanguageHeader = HttpHeader.parse(name.trim, value) match {
+          case HttpHeader.ParsingResult.Ok(h: `Accept-Language`, Nil) ⇒ h
+          case result ⇒ fail(result.toString)
+        }
+        body { availableLangs ⇒
+          val selected = Promise[String]()
+          val first = Language(availableLangs.head)
+          val more = availableLangs.tail.map(Language(_))
+          Get() ~> addHeader(acceptLanguageHeader) ~> {
+            selectPreferredLanguage(first, more: _*) { lang ⇒
+              complete(lang.toString)
+            }
+          } ~> check(selected.complete(Try(responseAs[String])))
+          Await.result(selected.future, 1.second)
+        }
+      }
+  }
 }
diff --git a/akka-http/src/main/scala/akka/http/scaladsl/server/directives/MiscDirectives.scala b/akka-http/src/main/scala/akka/http/scaladsl/server/directives/MiscDirectives.scala
index bfdd1ef7e7..dec77516e3 100644
--- a/akka-http/src/main/scala/akka/http/scaladsl/server/directives/MiscDirectives.scala
+++ b/akka-http/src/main/scala/akka/http/scaladsl/server/directives/MiscDirectives.scala
@@ -41,6 +41,29 @@ trait MiscDirectives {
    * be treated as if the request could not be matched.
    */
   def rejectEmptyResponse: Directive0 = MiscDirectives._rejectEmptyResponse
+
+  /**
+   * Inspects the request's `Accept-Language` header and determines,
+   * which of the given language alternatives is preferred by the client.
+   * (See http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231#section-5.3.5 for more details on the
+   * negotiation logic.)
+   * If there are several best language alternatives that the client
+   * has equal preference for (even if this preference is zero!)
+   * the order of the arguments is used as a tie breaker (First one wins).
+   */
+  def selectPreferredLanguage(first: Language, more: Language*): Directive1[Language] = {
+    val available = first :: List(more: _*) // we use List rather than Seq since element count is likely very small
+    BasicDirectives.extractRequest.map { req ⇒
+      val sortedWithQValues = available.zip(available.map(req.qValueForLanguage(_))).sortBy(-_._2)
+      val firstBest = sortedWithQValues.head
+      val moreBest = sortedWithQValues.tail.takeWhile(_._2 == firstBest._2)
+      if (moreBest.nonEmpty) {
+        // we have several languages that have the same qvalue, so we pick the one the `Accept-Header` lists first
+        val allBest = firstBest :: moreBest
+        req.acceptedLanguageRanges.flatMap(range ⇒ allBest.find(t ⇒ range.matches(t._1))).head._1
+      } else firstBest._1 // we have a single best match, so pick that
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 object MiscDirectives extends MiscDirectives {