Index: wp-includes/post-template.php
===================================================================
--- wp-includes/post-template.php	(revision 14159)
+++ wp-includes/post-template.php	(working copy)
@@ -77,13 +77,18 @@
 	if ( strlen($title) == 0 )
 		return;
 
-	$defaults = array('before' => '', 'after' =>  '', 'echo' => true);
-	$r = wp_parse_args($args, $defaults);
+	$defaults = array('before' => '', 'after' =>  '', 'echo' => true, 'text' => '%s');
+	
+	if ( is_string( $args) && !preg_match( '/^('.implode( '|', array_keys( $defaults ) ).')=/', $args ) )
+		$r = array_merge( $defaults, array( 'text' => $args ) );
+	else
+		$r = wp_parse_args( $args, $defaults );
+		
 	extract( $r, EXTR_SKIP );
 
 
-	$title = $before . $title . $after;
-	$title = esc_attr(strip_tags($title));
+	$title = $before . sprintf( $text, $title ) . $after;
+	$title = esc_attr( strip_tags( $title ) );
 
 	if ( $echo )
 		echo $title;