diff --git a/.vim/ftdetect/markdown.vim b/.vim/ftdetect/markdown.vim
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..af041c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.vim/ftdetect/markdown.vim
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+" 2014-02-27 force certain files to be highlighted with Markdown syntax
+augroup filetypedetect
+    autocmd BufNew,BufNewFile,BufRead *.txt,*.text,*.md,*.markdown :setfiletype markdown
+augroup END
+" 2014-02-28 this really fixes the filetype recognition
+autocmd BufWinEnter *.{md,mkd,mkdn,mark*,txt,text} silent setf markdown