diff --git a/CleanSpec.mk b/CleanSpec.mk
index 3e5d199408..52a1b1f9a2 100644
--- a/CleanSpec.mk
+++ b/CleanSpec.mk
@@ -310,6 +310,11 @@ $(call add-clean-step, rm -rf $(PRODUCT_OUT)/system/build.prop)
 $(call add-clean-step, rm -rf $(PRODUCT_OUT)/root/default.prop)
 $(call add-clean-step, rm -rf $(PRODUCT_OUT)/recovery/root/default.prop)
 
+# Make GNU++11 the default standard version. This requires a cleanspec because
+# char16_t/char32_t will be real types now instead of typedefs, which means
+# an ABI change since the names will mangle differently.
+$(call add-clean-step, rm -rf $(OUT_DIR))
+
 # ************************************************
 # NEWER CLEAN STEPS MUST BE AT THE END OF THE LIST
 # ************************************************
diff --git a/core/config.mk b/core/config.mk
index aa82e9315f..c9453ef9a4 100644
--- a/core/config.mk
+++ b/core/config.mk
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ SHOW_COMMANDS:= $(filter showcommands,$(MAKECMDGOALS))
 COMMON_GLOBAL_CFLAGS:= -DANDROID -fmessage-length=0 -W -Wall -Wno-unused -Winit-self -Wpointer-arith
 COMMON_RELEASE_CFLAGS:= -DNDEBUG -UDEBUG
 
-COMMON_GLOBAL_CPPFLAGS:= $(COMMON_GLOBAL_CFLAGS) -Wsign-promo
+COMMON_GLOBAL_CPPFLAGS:= $(COMMON_GLOBAL_CFLAGS) -Wsign-promo -std=gnu++11
 COMMON_RELEASE_CPPFLAGS:= $(COMMON_RELEASE_CFLAGS)
 
 # Set the extensions used for various packages