diff --git a/src/article-api/middleware/pagelist.ts b/src/article-api/middleware/pagelist.ts
index a4e2c11f7a..eab002c929 100644
--- a/src/article-api/middleware/pagelist.ts
+++ b/src/article-api/middleware/pagelist.ts
@@ -1,68 +1,104 @@
 import express from 'express'
-import type { Response } from 'express'
+import type { Response, RequestHandler } from 'express'
 
 import type { ExtendedRequest } from '@/types'
 import { defaultCacheControl } from '@/frame/middleware/cache-control.js'
 import { getProductStringFromPath, getVersionStringFromPath } from '#src/frame/lib/path-utils.js'
-import { latest } from '#src/versions/lib/enterprise-server-releases.js'
+import { getLanguageCodeFromPath } from '#src/languages/middleware/detect-language.js'
+import { pagelistValidationMiddleware } from './validation'
+import catchMiddlewareError from '#src/observability/middleware/catch-middleware-error.js'
 
 const router = express.Router()
 
-router.get('/v1/enterprise-server@latest', (req, res) => {
-  res.redirect(
-    307,
-    req.originalUrl.replace(
-      '/pagelist/v1/enterprise-server@latest',
-      `/pagelist/v1/enterprise-server@${latest}`,
-    ),
-  )
-})
+// pagelistValidationMiddleware is used for every route to normalize the lang and version from the path
 
-router.get('/v1/:product@:version', (req: ExtendedRequest, res: Response) => {
-  const { product, version } = req.params
+// If no version or lang is provided we'll assume english and fpt and redirect there
+router.get(
+  '/',
+  pagelistValidationMiddleware as RequestHandler,
+  catchMiddlewareError(async function (req: ExtendedRequest, res: Response) {
+    res.redirect(
+      308,
+      req.originalUrl.replace(
+        '/pagelist',
+        `/pagelist/${req.context!.currentLanguage}/${req.context!.currentVersion}`,
+      ),
+    )
+  }),
+)
 
-  if (!req.context || !req.context.pages) throw new Error('Request not contextualized.')
+// handles paths with fragments that could be the language or the version
+router.get(
+  '/:someParam',
+  pagelistValidationMiddleware as RequestHandler,
+  catchMiddlewareError(async function (req: ExtendedRequest, res: Response) {
+    const { someParam } = req.params
+    res.redirect(
+      308,
+      req.originalUrl.replace(
+        `/pagelist/${someParam}`,
+        `/pagelist/${req.context!.currentLanguage}/${req.context!.currentVersion}`,
+      ),
+    )
+  }),
+)
 
-  const pages = req.context.pages
+// for a fully qualified path with language and product version, we'll serve up the pagelist
+router.get(
+  '/:lang/:productVersion',
+  pagelistValidationMiddleware as RequestHandler,
+  catchMiddlewareError(async function (req: ExtendedRequest, res: Response) {
+    if (!req.context || !req.context.pages) throw new Error('Request not contextualized.')
 
-  // the keys of `context.pages` are permalinks
-  const keys = Object.keys(pages)
+    const pages = req.context.pages
 
-  // we filter the permalinks to get only our target version
-  const filteredPermalinks = keys.filter((key) => versionMatcher(key, `${product}@${version}`))
-  const expression = /^\/en/
+    // the keys of `context.pages` are permalinks
+    const keys = Object.keys(pages)
 
-  if (!filteredPermalinks.length) {
-    res.status(400).type('text').send('Invalid version')
-    return
-  }
+    // we filter the permalinks to get only our target version and language
+    const filteredPermalinks = keys.filter((key) =>
+      versionMatcher(key, req.context!.currentVersion!, req.context!.currentLanguage!),
+    )
 
-  //right now we only need english permalinks perhaps we can use the language from the request in the future
-  const englishPermalinks = filteredPermalinks.filter((permalink) => expression.test(permalink))
+    // if we've filtered it out of existence, there's no articles to return so we must've
+    // gotten a bad language or version
+    if (!filteredPermalinks.length) {
+      const { lang, productVersion } = req.params
 
-  defaultCacheControl(res)
+      res
+        .status(400)
+        .type('application/json')
+        .send(
+          JSON.stringify({
+            error: 'Invalid version or language code',
+            language: lang,
+            version: productVersion,
+          }),
+        )
+      return
+    }
 
-  // new line added at the end so `wc` works as expected with `-l` and `-w`.
-  res.type('text').send(englishPermalinks.join('\n').concat('\n'))
-})
+    defaultCacheControl(res)
 
-router.get('/:product@:version', (req, res) => {
-  res.redirect(307, req.originalUrl.replace('/pagelist', '/pagelist/v1'))
-})
+    // new line added at the end so `wc` works as expected with `-l` and `-w`.
+    res.type('text').send(filteredPermalinks.join('\n').concat('\n'))
+  }),
+)
 
-// If no version is provided we'll assume API v1 and Docs version FPT
-router.get('/', (req, res) => {
-  res.redirect(307, req.originalUrl.replace('/pagelist', '/pagelist/v1/free-pro-team@latest'))
-})
+function versionMatcher(key: string, targetVersion: string, targetLang: string) {
+  const versionFromPermalink = getVersionStringFromPath(key)
 
-function versionMatcher(key: string, targetVersion: string) {
-  const versionFromPath = getVersionStringFromPath(key)
-
-  if (!versionFromPath) {
+  if (!versionFromPermalink) {
     throw new Error(`Couldn't get version from the permalink ${key} when generating the pagelist.`)
   }
   if (getProductStringFromPath(key) === 'early-access') return null
-  if (versionFromPath === targetVersion) return key
+
+  const langFromPermalink = getLanguageCodeFromPath(key)
+  if (!langFromPermalink) {
+    throw new Error(`Couldn't get language from the permalink ${key} when generating the pagelist.`)
+  }
+
+  if (versionFromPermalink === targetVersion && langFromPermalink === targetLang) return key
 }
 
 export default router
diff --git a/src/article-api/middleware/validation.ts b/src/article-api/middleware/validation.ts
index 9964413b66..5fd0bb8720 100644
--- a/src/article-api/middleware/validation.ts
+++ b/src/article-api/middleware/validation.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,41 @@
 import { ExtendedRequestWithPageInfo } from '../types'
 import type { NextFunction, Response } from 'express'
+
+import { ExtendedRequest, Page } from '#src/types.js'
 import { isArchivedVersionByPath } from '@/archives/lib/is-archived-version'
 import getRedirect from '@/redirects/lib/get-redirect.js'
-import { Page } from '#src/types.js'
+import { getVersionStringFromPath, getLangFromPath } from '#src/frame/lib/path-utils.js'
+import nonEnterpriseDefaultVersion from '#src/versions/lib/non-enterprise-default-version.js'
+
+// validates the path for pagelist endpoint
+// specifically, defaults to `/en/free-pro-team@latest` when those values are missing
+// when they're provided, checks and cleans them up so we don't just lookup bad lang codes or versions
+export const pagelistValidationMiddleware = (
+  req: ExtendedRequest,
+  res: Response,
+  next: NextFunction,
+) => {
+  // get version from path, fallback to default version if it can't be resolved
+  const versionFromPath = getVersionStringFromPath(req.path) || nonEnterpriseDefaultVersion
+
+  // in the rare case that this failed, probably won't be reached
+  if (!versionFromPath)
+    return res.status(400).json({ error: `Couldn't get version from the given path.` })
+
+  // get the language from path, fallback to english if it can't be resolved
+  const langFromPath = getLangFromPath(req.path) || 'en'
+
+  // in the rare case that the language fallback failed
+  if (!langFromPath)
+    return res.status(400).json({
+      error: `Couldn't get language from the from the given path.`,
+    })
+
+  // set the version and language in the context, we'll use it later
+  req.context!.currentVersion = versionFromPath
+  req.context!.currentLanguage = langFromPath
+  return next()
+}
 
 export const pathValidationMiddleware = (
   req: ExtendedRequestWithPageInfo,
diff --git a/src/article-api/tests/pagelist.ts b/src/article-api/tests/pagelist.ts
index 1a985758a5..bc569adafb 100644
--- a/src/article-api/tests/pagelist.ts
+++ b/src/article-api/tests/pagelist.ts
@@ -4,19 +4,6 @@ import { get } from '#src/tests/helpers/e2etest.js'
 
 import { allVersionKeys } from '#src/versions/lib/all-versions.js'
 import nonEnterpriseDefaultVersion from '#src/versions/lib/non-enterprise-default-version.js'
-import { latest } from '#src/versions/lib/enterprise-server-releases.js'
-
-test('redirects without version suffix', async () => {
-  const res = await get(`/api/pagelist`)
-  expect(res.statusCode).toBe(307)
-  expect(res.headers.location).toBe(`/api/pagelist/v1/${nonEnterpriseDefaultVersion}`)
-})
-
-test('redirects for ghes@latest', async () => {
-  const res = await get(`/api/pagelist/v1/enterprise-server@latest`)
-  expect(res.statusCode).toBe(307)
-  expect(res.headers.location).toBe(`/api/pagelist/v1/enterprise-server@${latest}`)
-})
 
 describe.each(allVersionKeys)('pagelist api for %s', async (versionKey) => {
   beforeAll(() => {
@@ -37,7 +24,7 @@ describe.each(allVersionKeys)('pagelist api for %s', async (versionKey) => {
   })
 
   // queries the pagelist API for each version
-  const res = await get(`/api/pagelist/v1/${versionKey}`)
+  const res = await get(`/api/pagelist/en/${versionKey}`)
 
   test('is reachable, returns 200 OK', async () => {
     expect(res.statusCode).toBe(200)
@@ -45,7 +32,7 @@ describe.each(allVersionKeys)('pagelist api for %s', async (versionKey) => {
 
   // there's a large assortment of possible URLs,
   // even "/en" is an acceptable URL, so regexes capture lots
-  test('contains valid urls', async () => {
+  test('contains valid urls matching the requested version', async () => {
     let expression
 
     // if we're testing the default version, it may be missing
@@ -62,7 +49,7 @@ describe.each(allVersionKeys)('pagelist api for %s', async (versionKey) => {
       })
   })
 
-  test('only returns urls that contain /en', async () => {
+  test('English requests only returns urls that contain /en', async () => {
     const expression = new RegExp(`^/en(/${nonEnterpriseDefaultVersion})?/?.*`)
     res.body
       .trim()
@@ -72,3 +59,23 @@ describe.each(allVersionKeys)('pagelist api for %s', async (versionKey) => {
       })
   })
 })
+
+describe('Redirect Tests', () => {
+  test('redirects without version suffix', async () => {
+    const res = await get(`/api/pagelist`)
+    expect(res.statusCode).toBe(308)
+    expect(res.headers.location).toBe(`/api/pagelist/en/${nonEnterpriseDefaultVersion}`)
+  })
+
+  test('should redirect to /pagelist/en/:product@:version when URL does not include /en', async () => {
+    const res = await get('/api/pagelist/free-pro-team@latest')
+    expect(res.statusCode).toBe(308)
+    expect(res.headers.location).toBe('/api/pagelist/en/free-pro-team@latest')
+  })
+
+  test('should redirect to /pagelist/en/free-pro-team@lateset when URL does not include version', async () => {
+    const res = await get('/api/pagelist/en')
+    expect(res.statusCode).toBe(308)
+    expect(res.headers.location).toBe('/api/pagelist/en/free-pro-team@latest')
+  })
+})
diff --git a/src/frame/lib/path-utils.js b/src/frame/lib/path-utils.js
index 1c7c770292..9bf528040f 100644
--- a/src/frame/lib/path-utils.js
+++ b/src/frame/lib/path-utils.js
@@ -7,6 +7,14 @@ import { allVersions } from '#src/versions/lib/all-versions.js'
 import nonEnterpriseDefaultVersion from '#src/versions/lib/non-enterprise-default-version.js'
 const supportedVersions = new Set(Object.keys(allVersions))
 
+// Extracts the language code from the path
+// if href is '/en/something', returns 'en'
+export function getLangFromPath(href) {
+  // first remove the version from the path so we don't match, say, `/free-pro-team` as `/fr/`
+  const match = getPathWithoutVersion(href).match(patterns.getLanguageCode)
+  return match ? match[1] : null
+}
+
 // Add the language to the given HREF
 // /articles/foo -> /en/articles/foo
 export function getPathWithLanguage(href, languageCode) {