Comment 32 for bug 249340

I fixed the upgrade using the method I mentioned earlier, i.e.
sudo dpkg -r -a
before the dpkg --reconfigure -a
I checked System->Administration->Language Support
A popup indicated that two packages were not completely installed
language-pack-kde-en and language-pack-kde-en
I accepted the offer to install them. The available languages are now legion, with English checked as the default.

Having seen some other postings about renamed packages, I suspect this is a much cleaner way fo fixing the problem than some of the more brutal suggestions.