diff --git a/nodejs/__test__/table.test.ts b/nodejs/__test__/table.test.ts
index 5a27b852b..837d9b608 100644
--- a/nodejs/__test__/table.test.ts
+++ b/nodejs/__test__/table.test.ts
@@ -4050,6 +4050,28 @@ describe.each(arrowVersions)(
       );
     });
 
+    test.each(["Klingon", "english"])(
+      "rejects unsupported full text language %s with a catchable error",
+      (language) => {
+        expect(() => Index.fts({ language })).toThrow(
+          new Error(
+            `LanceDB does not support the requested language: '${language}'`,
+          ),
+        );
+      },
+    );
+
+    test("full text search with a supported language", async () => {
+      const db = await connect(tmpDir.name);
+      const table = await db.createTable("test", [{ text: "running" }]);
+      await table.createIndex("text", {
+        config: Index.fts({ language: "English", stem: true }),
+      });
+
+      const results = await table.search("run").toArray();
+      expect(results.map((row) => row.text)).toEqual(["running"]);
+    });
+
     test("full text search without lowercase", async () => {
       const db = await connect(tmpDir.name);
       const data = [
diff --git a/nodejs/src/index.rs b/nodejs/src/index.rs
index 762f74870..e5884aa4d 100644
--- a/nodejs/src/index.rs
+++ b/nodejs/src/index.rs
@@ -239,7 +239,12 @@ impl Index {
             opts = opts.base_tokenizer(base_tokenizer);
         }
         if let Some(language) = language {
-            opts = opts.language(&language).unwrap();
+            opts = opts.language(&language).map_err(|_| {
+                napi::Error::from_reason(format!(
+                    "LanceDB does not support the requested language: '{}'",
+                    language
+                ))
+            })?;
         }
         if let Some(max_token_length) = max_token_length {
             opts = opts.max_token_length(Some(max_token_length as usize));