diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 6c0bfc9c412c..6763e7a9fa7e 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -350,8 +350,8 @@ add_library(fmt::fmt-header-only ALIAS fmt-header-only)
 
 if (MSVC AND FMT_UNICODE)
   # Unicode support requires compiling with /utf-8.
-  target_compile_options(fmt PUBLIC /utf-8)
-  target_compile_options(fmt-header-only INTERFACE /utf-8)
+  target_compile_options(fmt PUBLIC $<$<COMPILE_LANGUAGE:CXX>:/utf-8>)
+  target_compile_options(fmt-header-only INTERFACE $<$<COMPILE_LANGUAGE:CXX>:/utf-8>)
 endif ()
 
 target_compile_definitions(fmt-header-only INTERFACE FMT_HEADER_ONLY=1)