diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/combine.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/combine.nix
index 2c9119b934f..e69c6ec425c 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/combine.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/combine.nix
@@ -82,21 +82,21 @@ in buildEnv {
     # updmap.cfg seems like not needing changes
 
     # now filter hyphenation patterns, in a hacky way ATM
-  ''
+  (let script =
+    writeText "hyphens.sed" (
+      lib.concatMapStrings (pkg: "/^\% from ${pkg.pname}/,/^\%/p;\n") pkgList.splitBin.wrong
+      + "1,/^\% from/p;" );
+  in ''
     (
-      local script='${
-        lib.concatMapStrings (pkg: "/^\% from ${pkg.pname}/,/^\%/p;\n")
-          pkgList.splitBin.wrong
-      } 1,/^\% from/p;'
       cd ./share/texmf/tex/generic/config/
       for fname in language.dat language.def; do
         [ -e $fname ] || continue;
         cnfOrig="$(realpath ./$fname)"
         rm ./$fname
-        cat "$cnfOrig" | sed -n "$script" > ./$fname
+        cat "$cnfOrig" | sed -n -f '${script}' > ./$fname
       done
     )
-  '' +
+  '') +
 
   # function to wrap created executables with required env vars
   ''
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/default.nix
index c8b2a414fa3..a084c973b78 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive-new/default.nix
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
     * in case of any bugs or feature requests, file a github issue and /cc @vcunat
 */
 
-{ stdenv, lib, fetchurl, runCommand, buildEnv
+{ stdenv, lib, fetchurl, runCommand, writeText, buildEnv
 , callPackage, ghostscriptX, harfbuzz, poppler_min
 , makeWrapper, perl, python, ruby
 , useFixedHashes ? true
@@ -48,7 +48,8 @@ let
 
   # function for creating a working environment from a set of TL packages
   combine = import ./combine.nix {
-    inherit bin combinePkgs buildEnv fastUnique lib makeWrapper perl stdenv python ruby;
+    inherit bin combinePkgs buildEnv fastUnique lib makeWrapper writeText
+      perl stdenv python ruby;
   };
 
   # the set of TeX Live packages, collections, and schemes; using upstream naming