Index: wp-includes/post-template.php
===================================================================
--- wp-includes/post-template.php	(revision 14032)
+++ wp-includes/post-template.php	(working copy)
@@ -77,10 +77,20 @@
 	if ( strlen($title) == 0 )
 		return;
 
-	$defaults = array('before' => '', 'after' =>  '', 'echo' => true);
+	$defaults = array('before' => '', 'after' =>  '', 'echo' => true, 'formatted' => '');
+
+	if ( 1 == func_num_args() && is_string( $args ) && false === strpos( $args, '=' ) ) {
+		if ( false !== strpos( $args, '%' ) && $formatted_title = sprintf( $args, $title ) )
+			$title = $formatted_title;
+		else
+			$args = array( 'before' => $args );
+	}
+
 	$r = wp_parse_args($args, $defaults);
 	extract( $r, EXTR_SKIP );
 
+	if ( false === strpos( $formatted, '%' ) && $formatted_title = sprintf( $formatted, $title ) )
+		$title = $formatted_title;
 
 	$title = $before . $title . $after;
 	$title = esc_attr(strip_tags($title));