diff --git a/gguf-py/gguf/gguf.py b/gguf-py/gguf/gguf.py
index 5f377187e..c6f4895ac 100644
--- a/gguf-py/gguf/gguf.py
+++ b/gguf-py/gguf/gguf.py
@@ -761,6 +761,7 @@ class SpecialVocab:
 
     def __init__(self, path: Path, load_merges: bool = False, special_token_types: Optional[Tuple[str, ...]] = None):
         self.special_token_ids = {}
+        self.load_merges = load_merges
         if special_token_types is not None:
             self.special_token_types = special_token_types
         self.load(path)