diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/resources/checkstyle_suppressions.xml b/buildSrc/src/main/resources/checkstyle_suppressions.xml
index 07dd29a33ad68..85b61e2c9867c 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/resources/checkstyle_suppressions.xml
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/resources/checkstyle_suppressions.xml
@@ -441,7 +441,6 @@
   <suppress files="core[/\\]src[/\\]main[/\\]java[/\\]org[/\\]elasticsearch[/\\]index[/\\]MergeSchedulerConfig.java" checks="LineLength" />
   <suppress files="core[/\\]src[/\\]main[/\\]java[/\\]org[/\\]elasticsearch[/\\]index[/\\]NodeServicesProvider.java" checks="LineLength" />
   <suppress files="core[/\\]src[/\\]main[/\\]java[/\\]org[/\\]elasticsearch[/\\]index[/\\]SearchSlowLog.java" checks="LineLength" />
-  <suppress files="core[/\\]src[/\\]main[/\\]java[/\\]org[/\\]elasticsearch[/\\]index[/\\]analysis[/\\]Analysis.java" checks="LineLength" />
   <suppress files="core[/\\]src[/\\]main[/\\]java[/\\]org[/\\]elasticsearch[/\\]index[/\\]analysis[/\\]AnalysisRegistry.java" checks="LineLength" />
   <suppress files="core[/\\]src[/\\]main[/\\]java[/\\]org[/\\]elasticsearch[/\\]index[/\\]analysis[/\\]AnalysisService.java" checks="LineLength" />
   <suppress files="core[/\\]src[/\\]main[/\\]java[/\\]org[/\\]elasticsearch[/\\]index[/\\]analysis[/\\]CommonGramsTokenFilterFactory.java" checks="LineLength" />
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/Analysis.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/Analysis.java
index b7481e78496e5..1054721535eac 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/Analysis.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/Analysis.java
@@ -67,8 +67,10 @@
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.Reader;
+import java.nio.charset.CharacterCodingException;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
+import java.nio.file.Paths;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Collection;
@@ -163,7 +165,8 @@ public static CharArraySet parseStemExclusion(Settings settings, CharArraySet de
         NAMED_STOP_WORDS = unmodifiableMap(namedStopWords);
     }
 
-    public static CharArraySet parseWords(Environment env, Settings settings, String name, CharArraySet defaultWords, Map<String, Set<?>> namedWords, boolean ignoreCase) {
+    public static CharArraySet parseWords(Environment env, Settings settings, String name, CharArraySet defaultWords,
+                                          Map<String, Set<?>> namedWords, boolean ignoreCase) {
         String value = settings.get(name);
         if (value != null) {
             if ("_none_".equals(value)) {
@@ -237,12 +240,17 @@ public static List<String> getWordList(Environment env, Settings settings, Strin
             }
         }
 
-        final Path wordListFile = env.configFile().resolve(wordListPath);
+        final Path path = env.configFile().resolve(wordListPath);
 
-        try (BufferedReader reader = FileSystemUtils.newBufferedReader(wordListFile.toUri().toURL(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8)) {
+        try (BufferedReader reader = FileSystemUtils.newBufferedReader(path.toUri().toURL(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8)) {
             return loadWordList(reader, "#");
+        } catch (CharacterCodingException ex) {
+            String message = String.format(Locale.ROOT,
+                "Unsupported character encoding detected while reading %s_path: %s - files must be UTF-8 encoded",
+                settingPrefix, path.toString());
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException(message, ex);
         } catch (IOException ioe) {
-            String message = String.format(Locale.ROOT, "IOException while reading %s_path: %s", settingPrefix);
+            String message = String.format(Locale.ROOT, "IOException while reading %s_path: %s", settingPrefix, path.toString());
             throw new IllegalArgumentException(message, ioe);
         }
     }
@@ -256,7 +264,7 @@ public static List<String> loadWordList(Reader reader, String comment) throws IO
             } else {
                 br = new BufferedReader(reader);
             }
-            String word = null;
+            String word;
             while ((word = br.readLine()) != null) {
                 if (!Strings.hasText(word)) {
                     continue;
@@ -283,13 +291,16 @@ public static Reader getReaderFromFile(Environment env, Settings settings, Strin
         if (filePath == null) {
             return null;
         }
-
         final Path path = env.configFile().resolve(filePath);
-
         try {
             return FileSystemUtils.newBufferedReader(path.toUri().toURL(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+        } catch (CharacterCodingException ex) {
+            String message = String.format(Locale.ROOT,
+                "Unsupported character encoding detected while reading %s_path: %s files must be UTF-8 encoded",
+                settingPrefix, path.toString());
+            throw new IllegalArgumentException(message, ex);
         } catch (IOException ioe) {
-            String message = String.format(Locale.ROOT, "IOException while reading %s_path: %s", settingPrefix);
+            String message = String.format(Locale.ROOT, "IOException while reading %s_path: %s", settingPrefix, path.toString());
             throw new IllegalArgumentException(message, ioe);
         }
     }
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/AnalysisTests.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/AnalysisTests.java
index 061e0d9d29fc7..37943773cef2b 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/AnalysisTests.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/index/analysis/AnalysisTests.java
@@ -21,8 +21,23 @@
 
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.util.CharArraySet;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
+import org.elasticsearch.env.Environment;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.ESTestCase;
 
+import java.io.BufferedWriter;
+import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.OutputStream;
+import java.nio.charset.CharacterCodingException;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+import java.nio.charset.MalformedInputException;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+import java.nio.file.Files;
+import java.nio.file.NoSuchFileException;
+import java.nio.file.Path;
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.List;
+
 import static org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings.settingsBuilder;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.is;
 
@@ -42,4 +57,55 @@ public void testParseStemExclusion() {
         assertThat(set.contains("bar"), is(true));
         assertThat(set.contains("baz"), is(false));
     }
+
+    public void testParseNonExistingFile() {
+        Path tempDir = createTempDir();
+        Settings nodeSettings = Settings.builder()
+            .put("foo.bar_path", tempDir.resolve("foo.dict"))
+            .put(Environment.PATH_HOME_SETTING.getKey(), tempDir).build();
+        Environment env = new Environment(nodeSettings);
+        IllegalArgumentException ex = expectThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class,
+            () -> Analysis.getWordList(env, nodeSettings, "foo.bar"));
+        assertEquals("IOException while reading foo.bar_path: " +  tempDir.resolve("foo.dict").toString(), ex.getMessage());
+        assertTrue(ex.getCause().toString(), ex.getCause() instanceof FileNotFoundException
+            || ex.getCause() instanceof NoSuchFileException);
+    }
+
+
+    public void testParseFalseEncodedFile() throws IOException {
+        Path tempDir = createTempDir();
+        Path dict = tempDir.resolve("foo.dict");
+        Settings nodeSettings = Settings.builder()
+            .put("foo.bar_path", dict)
+            .put(Environment.PATH_HOME_SETTING.getKey(), tempDir).build();
+        try (OutputStream writer = Files.newOutputStream(dict)) {
+            writer.write(new byte[]{(byte) 0xff, 0x00, 0x00}); // some invalid UTF-8
+            writer.write('\n');
+        }
+        Environment env = new Environment(nodeSettings);
+        IllegalArgumentException ex = expectThrows(IllegalArgumentException.class,
+            () -> Analysis.getWordList(env, nodeSettings, "foo.bar"));
+        assertEquals("Unsupported character encoding detected while reading foo.bar_path: " + tempDir.resolve("foo.dict").toString()
+            + " - files must be UTF-8 encoded" , ex.getMessage());
+        assertTrue(ex.getCause().toString(), ex.getCause() instanceof MalformedInputException
+            || ex.getCause() instanceof CharacterCodingException);
+    }
+
+    public void testParseWordList() throws IOException {
+        Path tempDir = createTempDir();
+        Path dict = tempDir.resolve("foo.dict");
+        Settings nodeSettings = Settings.builder()
+            .put("foo.bar_path", dict)
+            .put(Environment.PATH_HOME_SETTING.getKey(), tempDir).build();
+        try (BufferedWriter writer = Files.newBufferedWriter(dict, StandardCharsets.UTF_8)) {
+            writer.write("hello");
+            writer.write('\n');
+            writer.write("world");
+            writer.write('\n');
+        }
+        Environment env = new Environment(nodeSettings);
+        List<String> wordList = Analysis.getWordList(env, nodeSettings, "foo.bar");
+        assertEquals(Arrays.asList("hello", "world"), wordList);
+
+    }
 }