diff --git a/library/smarty/libs/plugins/modifiercompiler.count_words.php b/library/smarty/libs/plugins/modifiercompiler.count_words.php
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/library/smarty/libs/plugins/modifiercompiler.count_words.php
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * Smarty plugin
+ *
+ * @package    Smarty
+ * @subpackage PluginsModifierCompiler
+ */
+
+/**
+ * Smarty count_words modifier plugin
+ * Type:     modifier<br>
+ * Name:     count_words<br>
+ * Purpose:  count the number of words in a text
+ *
+ * @link   http://www.smarty.net/manual/en/language.modifier.count.words.php count_words (Smarty online manual)
+ * @author Uwe Tews
+ *
+ * @param array $params parameters
+ *
+ * @return string with compiled code
+ */
+function smarty_modifiercompiler_count_words($params) {
+    if (Smarty::$_MBSTRING) {
+        // return 'preg_match_all(\'#[\w\pL]+#' . Smarty::$_UTF8_MODIFIER . '\', ' . $params[0] . ', $tmp)';
+        // expression taken from http://de.php.net/manual/en/function.str-word-count.php#85592
+        return 'preg_match_all(\'/\p{L}[\p{L}\p{Mn}\p{Pd}\\\'\x{2019}]*/' . Smarty::$_UTF8_MODIFIER . '\', ' . $params[0] . ', $tmp)';
+    }
+    // no MBString fallback
+    return 'str_word_count(' . $params[0] . ')';
+}