diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 53a2871aa..78e069fc7 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
   only be pushed downstream after the audio generated from `TTSSpeakFrame` has
   been spoken.
 
+- Fixed a [bug](https://github.com/pipecat-ai/pipecat/issues/868) in `DeepgramSTTService` that was causing Language to be passed
+  as python object instead of a string, causing connection to fail.
+
 ## [0.0.51] - 2024-12-16
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/src/pipecat/services/deepgram.py b/src/pipecat/services/deepgram.py
index 6578f2873..8d3def5be 100644
--- a/src/pipecat/services/deepgram.py
+++ b/src/pipecat/services/deepgram.py
@@ -138,6 +138,13 @@ class DeepgramSTTService(STTService):
         merged_options = default_options
         if live_options:
             merged_options = LiveOptions(**{**default_options.to_dict(), **live_options.to_dict()})
+
+        # deepgram connection requires language to be a string
+        if isinstance(merged_options.language, Language) and hasattr(
+            merged_options.language, "value"
+        ):
+            merged_options.language = merged_options.language.value
+
         self._settings = merged_options.to_dict()
 
         self._client = DeepgramClient(