diff --git a/src/julia-parser.scm b/src/julia-parser.scm
index d85f0f1d8f873..39271d325d36b 100644
--- a/src/julia-parser.scm
+++ b/src/julia-parser.scm
@@ -1833,6 +1833,14 @@
                (list* ex (tostr custom b) e)
                0)))
 
+      ; convert literal \r and \r\n in strings to \n (issue #11988)
+      ((eqv? c #\return) ; \r
+       (begin
+         (if (eqv? (peek-char p) #\linefeed) ; \r\n
+             (read-char p))
+         (write-char #\newline b)
+         (loop (read-char p) b e 0)))
+
       (else
        (write-char (not-eof-3 c) b)
        (loop (read-char p) b e 0)))))
diff --git a/test/parse.jl b/test/parse.jl
index 3dcf6c4924866..246ff2e2c94e6 100644
--- a/test/parse.jl
+++ b/test/parse.jl
@@ -310,3 +310,7 @@ end
 @test parse("a||b→c&&d") == Expr(:call, :→,
                                  Expr(symbol("||"), :a, :b),
                                  Expr(symbol("&&"), :c, :d))
+
+# issue #11988 -- normalize \r and \r\n in literal strings to \n
+@test "foo\nbar" == parse("\"\"\"\r\nfoo\r\nbar\"\"\"") == parse("\"\"\"\nfoo\nbar\"\"\"") == parse("\"\"\"\rfoo\rbar\"\"\"") == parse("\"foo\r\nbar\"") == parse("\"foo\rbar\"") == parse("\"foo\nbar\"")
+@test '\r' == first("\r") == first("\r\n") # still allow explicit \r