diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index c91ef35de8..66134f4ef1 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -240,6 +240,7 @@ Patches have also been contributed by:
   David Weber          <wb@munzinger.de>
   Marti Raudsepp       <marti@juffo.org>
   Radu Caragea         <dmns_serp@yahoo.com>
+  Beat Jörg            <Beat.Joerg@ssatr.ch>
 
   [....send patches to get your name here....]
 
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index 9ca76418ce..fb8d9a3cfa 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -3365,8 +3365,9 @@ qemuBuildChrChardevStr(virDomainChrSourceDefPtr dev, const char *alias,
         break;
 
     case VIR_DOMAIN_CHR_TYPE_DEV:
-        virBufferAsprintf(&buf, "tty,id=char%s,path=%s", alias,
-                          dev->data.file.path);
+        virBufferAsprintf(&buf, "%s,id=char%s,path=%s",
+                          STRPREFIX(alias, "parallel") ? "parport" : "tty",
+                          alias, dev->data.file.path);
         break;
 
     case VIR_DOMAIN_CHR_TYPE_FILE:
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-parallel-parport-chardev.args b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-parallel-parport-chardev.args
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..48f968aba5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-parallel-parport-chardev.args
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+LC_ALL=C PATH=/bin HOME=/home/test USER=test LOGNAME=test /usr/bin/qemu -S -M \
+pc -m 214 -smp 1 -nographic -nodefconfig -nodefaults -chardev socket,\
+id=charmonitor,path=/tmp/test-monitor,server,nowait -mon chardev=charmonitor,\
+id=monitor,mode=readline -no-acpi -boot c -hda /dev/HostVG/QEMUGuest1 \
+-chardev parport,id=charparallel0,path=/dev/parport0 -device \
+isa-parallel,chardev=charparallel0,id=parallel0 -usb -device \
+virtio-balloon-pci,id=balloon0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x3
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-parallel-parport-chardev.xml b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-parallel-parport-chardev.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b495cdc67c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-parallel-parport-chardev.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+<domain type='qemu'>
+  <name>QEMUGuest1</name>
+  <uuid>c7a5fdbd-edaf-9455-926a-d65c16db1809</uuid>
+  <memory unit='KiB'>219136</memory>
+  <currentMemory unit='KiB'>219136</currentMemory>
+  <vcpu placement='static'>1</vcpu>
+  <os>
+    <type arch='i686' machine='pc'>hvm</type>
+    <boot dev='hd'/>
+  </os>
+  <clock offset='utc'/>
+  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
+  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
+  <on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
+  <devices>
+    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu</emulator>
+    <disk type='block' device='disk'>
+      <source dev='/dev/HostVG/QEMUGuest1'/>
+      <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
+      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>
+    </disk>
+    <controller type='ide' index='0'/>
+    <parallel type='dev'>
+      <source path='/dev/parport0'/>
+      <target port='0'/>
+    </parallel>
+    <memballoon model='virtio'/>
+  </devices>
+</domain>
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
index 617b178e08..7b00ea2e81 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
@@ -604,6 +604,8 @@ mymain(void)
             QEMU_CAPS_CHARDEV, QEMU_CAPS_DEVICE, QEMU_CAPS_NODEFCONFIG);
     DO_TEST("parallel-tcp-chardev", false,
             QEMU_CAPS_CHARDEV, QEMU_CAPS_DEVICE, QEMU_CAPS_NODEFCONFIG);
+    DO_TEST("parallel-parport-chardev", false,
+            QEMU_CAPS_CHARDEV, QEMU_CAPS_DEVICE, QEMU_CAPS_NODEFCONFIG);
     DO_TEST("console-compat-chardev", false,
             QEMU_CAPS_CHARDEV, QEMU_CAPS_DEVICE, QEMU_CAPS_NODEFCONFIG);