I just ran into the same problem, using python 2.6 + sqlalchemy 0.9.4 / 0.9.6 + MySQL.
The problem in my case IS definitely related to python 2.6 - basically, python 2.6 doesn't allow unicode keywords, while 2.7 does. Ie, if you do this: def foo(**kwargs): print kwargs foo(**{u'thing':1}) ...it will work in 2.7, but give this error in 2.6: TypeError: foo() keywords must be strings For reference, these were the table.dialect_kwargs.keys() that were making trouble in 2.6: [u'mysql_comment', u'mysql_engine', u'mysql_default charset'] Fine, except for the fact that they're unicode... -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sqlalchemy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sqlalchemy+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to sqlalchemy@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sqlalchemy. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.