diff --git a/wp-includes/functions.php b/wp-includes/functions.php
index b01831d9b..a31028b92 100644
--- a/wp-includes/functions.php
+++ b/wp-includes/functions.php
@@ -2765,7 +2765,7 @@ function _default_wp_die_handler( $message, $title = '', $args = array() ) {
 ?>
 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
 <!-- Ticket #11289, IE bug fix: always pad the error page with enough characters such that it is greater than 512 bytes, even after gzip compression abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890aabbccddeeffgghhiijjkkllmmnnooppqqrrssttuuvvwwxxyyzz11223344556677889900abacbcbdcdcededfefegfgfhghgihihjijikjkjlklkmlmlnmnmononpopoqpqprqrqsrsrtstsubcbcdcdedefefgfabcadefbghicjkldmnoepqrfstugvwxhyz1i234j567k890laabmbccnddeoeffpgghqhiirjjksklltmmnunoovppqwqrrxsstytuuzvvw0wxx1yyz2z113223434455666777889890091abc2def3ghi4jkl5mno6pqr7stu8vwx9yz11aab2bcc3dd4ee5ff6gg7hh8ii9j0jk1kl2lmm3nnoo4p5pq6qrr7ss8tt9uuvv0wwx1x2yyzz13aba4cbcb5dcdc6dedfef8egf9gfh0ghg1ihi2hji3jik4jkj5lkl6kml7mln8mnm9ono -->
-<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" <?php if ( function_exists( 'language_attributes' ) ) language_attributes(); ?>>
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" <?php if ( function_exists( 'language_attributes' ) && function_exists( 'is_rtl' ) ) language_attributes(); else echo "dir='$text_direction'"; ?>>
 <head>
 	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
 	<title><?php echo $title ?></title>
