diff --git a/Readme.rst b/Readme.rst
index 9189200..3582010 100644
--- a/Readme.rst
+++ b/Readme.rst
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ These should be placed inside of the ``~/.nano/`` directory.
 Alternatively::
 
     git clone git@github.com:scopatz/nanorc.git ~/.nano
-    
+
 *Note - if you have any issues, alternatively use::
 
     git clone https://github.com/scopatz/nanorc.git ~/.nano
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ You can also append the contents of ``~/.nano/nanorc`` into your
 ``~/.nanorc`` to include all languages::
 
     cat ~/.nano/nanorc >> ~/.nanorc
-    
+
 Finally, you can run an automatic installer using the following code::
 
     $ curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/scopatz/nanorc/master/install.sh | sh
@@ -32,3 +32,8 @@ Finally, you can run an automatic installer using the following code::
 or alternatively::
 
     $ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/scopatz/nanorc/master/install.sh -O- | sh
+
+*Note -
+    some syntax definitions which exist in Nano upstream may be preferable to the ones provided by this package.
+    The install.sh script may be run with ``-l`` or ``--lite`` to insert the included syntax definitions from this package
+    with lower precedence than the ones provided by the standard package.
diff --git a/install.sh b/install.sh
index 71091ac..6cd3497 100755
--- a/install.sh
+++ b/install.sh
@@ -1,27 +1,52 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-wget -O /tmp/nanorc.zip https://github.com/scopatz/nanorc/archive/master.zip
-if [ ! -d ~/.nano/ ]
-then
+function _fetch_sources() {
+  wget -O /tmp/nanorc.zip https://github.com/scopatz/nanorc/archive/master.zip
+  if [ ! -d ~/.nano/ ]
+  then
     mkdir ~/.nano/
-fi
+  fi
 
-cd ~/.nano/
+  cd ~/.nano/
 
-unzip -o "/tmp/nanorc.zip"
-mv nanorc-master/* ./
-rm -rf nanorc-master
-rm /tmp/nanorc.zip
+  unzip -o "/tmp/nanorc.zip"
+  mv nanorc-master/* ./
+  rm -rf nanorc-master
+  rm /tmp/nanorc.zip
+}
 
-if [ ! -f ~/.nanorc ]
-then
-    touch ~/.nanorc
-fi
+function _update_nanorc() {
+  if [ ! -f ~/.nanorc ]
+  then
+      touch ~/.nanorc
+  fi
+
+  # add all includes from ~/.nano/nanorc if they're not already there
+  while read inc; do
+      if ! grep -q "$inc" "${NANORC_FILE}"; then
+          echo "$inc" >> $NANORC_FILE
+      fi
+  done < ~/.nano/nanorc
+}
+
+function _update_nanorc_lite() {
+  sed -i '/include "\/usr\/share\/nano\/\*\.nanorc"/i include "~\/.nano\/*.nanorc"' "${NANORC_FILE}"
+}
 
-# add all includes from ~/.nano/nanorc if they're not already there
 NANORC_FILE=~/.nanorc
-while read inc; do
-    if ! grep -q "$inc" "${NANORC_FILE}"; then
-        echo "$inc" >> $NANORC_FILE
-    fi
-done < ~/.nano/nanorc
+
+case "$1" in
+ -l|--lite)
+ UPDATE_LITE=1;;
+ -h|--help)
+ echo "Install script for nanorc syntax highlights"
+ echo "Call with -l or --lite to update .nanorc with secondary precedence to existing .nanorc includes"
+ ;;
+esac
+
+_fetch_sources;
+if [[ $UPDATE_LITE ]]; then
+  _update_nanorc_lite;
+else
+  _update_nanorc;
+fi