diff --git a/src/pocketsphinx.c b/src/pocketsphinx.c
index 84cfc4b6..c746b94d 100644
--- a/src/pocketsphinx.c
+++ b/src/pocketsphinx.c
@@ -128,6 +128,13 @@ ps_expand_model_config(ps_config_t *config)
             E_INFO("Parsed model-specific feature parameters from %s\n",
                     featparams);
     }
+    else if (hmmdir) {
+        E_WARN("No feat.params file found in %s; the front end will be built "
+               "from defaults plus caller-supplied configuration. The caller "
+               "is responsible for matching the acoustic model's training "
+               "front end.\n",
+               hmmdir);
+    }
 }
 
 static void
diff --git a/test/unit/CMakeLists.txt b/test/unit/CMakeLists.txt
index 4c0d08db..2235ba5b 100644
--- a/test/unit/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/test/unit/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ set(TESTS
   test_fe
   test_fe_warp_overflow
   test_fe_fft_overflow
+  test_featparams
   test_fwdflat
   test_fwdtree_bestpath
   test_fwdtree
diff --git a/test/unit/test_featparams.c b/test/unit/test_featparams.c
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..78b1c16c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/unit/test_featparams.c
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+#include <pocketsphinx.h>
+#include <stdarg.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <string.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+
+#include "test_macros.h"
+
+static int missing_featparams_warning;
+
+static void
+log_callback(void *user_data, err_lvl_t level, const char *fmt, ...)
+{
+    char message[1024];
+    va_list args;
+
+    (void)user_data;
+    va_start(args, fmt);
+    vsnprintf(message, sizeof(message), fmt, args);
+    va_end(args);
+    if (level == ERR_WARN && strstr(message, "No feat.params file found"))
+        missing_featparams_warning = 1;
+}
+
+int
+main(int argc, char *argv[])
+{
+    static const char *model_files[] = {
+        "mdef", "means", "mixture_weights", "noisedict",
+        "transition_matrices", "variances"
+    };
+    char tempdir[] = "/tmp/test_featparams.XXXXXX";
+    char source[1024], destination[1024];
+    ps_config_t *config;
+    ps_decoder_t *ps;
+    size_t i;
+
+    (void)argc;
+    (void)argv;
+    err_set_callback(log_callback, NULL);
+
+    TEST_ASSERT(config = ps_config_parse_json(
+                    NULL, "hmm: \"" DATADIR "/an4_ci_cont\","
+                    "lm: \"" DATADIR "/turtle.lm.bin\","
+                    "dict: \"" DATADIR "/turtle.dic\""));
+    TEST_ASSERT(ps = ps_init(config));
+    TEST_ASSERT(ps_config_str(ps_get_config(ps), "featparams") != NULL);
+    TEST_ASSERT(!missing_featparams_warning);
+    ps_free(ps);
+    ps_config_free(config);
+
+    TEST_ASSERT(mkdtemp(tempdir) != NULL);
+    for (i = 0; i < sizeof(model_files) / sizeof(model_files[0]); ++i) {
+        snprintf(source, sizeof(source), DATADIR "/an4_ci_cont/%s",
+                 model_files[i]);
+        snprintf(destination, sizeof(destination), "%s/%s", tempdir,
+                 model_files[i]);
+        TEST_EQUAL(0, symlink(source, destination));
+    }
+
+    missing_featparams_warning = 0;
+    TEST_ASSERT(config = ps_config_parse_json(
+                    NULL, "lm: \"" DATADIR "/turtle.lm.bin\","
+                    "dict: \"" DATADIR "/turtle.dic\""));
+    ps_config_set_str(config, "hmm", tempdir);
+    TEST_ASSERT(ps = ps_init(config));
+    TEST_ASSERT(ps_config_str(ps_get_config(ps), "featparams") == NULL);
+    TEST_ASSERT(missing_featparams_warning);
+    ps_free(ps);
+    ps_config_free(config);
+
+    for (i = 0; i < sizeof(model_files) / sizeof(model_files[0]); ++i) {
+        snprintf(destination, sizeof(destination), "%s/%s", tempdir,
+                 model_files[i]);
+        TEST_EQUAL(0, unlink(destination));
+    }
+    TEST_EQUAL(0, rmdir(tempdir));
+    err_set_callback(err_logfp_cb, NULL);
+    return 0;
+}