diff --git a/wp-includes/locale.php b/wp-includes/locale.php
index aea9b4c3b..925e241f9 100644
--- a/wp-includes/locale.php
+++ b/wp-includes/locale.php
@@ -187,13 +187,11 @@ class WP_Locale {
 		$trans = __('number_format_decimal_point');
 		$this->number_format['decimal_point'] = ('number_format_decimal_point' == $trans) ? '.' : $trans;
 
-		// Locale-specific tweaks
-		if ( self::is_locale_rtl( get_locale() ) )
-			$this->text_direction = 'rtl';
-
-		// Import the $text_direction global.
+		// Set text direction.
 		if ( isset( $GLOBALS['text_direction'] ) )
 			$this->text_direction = $GLOBALS['text_direction'];
+		elseif ( is_textdomain_loaded( 'default' ) && self::is_locale_rtl( get_locale() ) )
+			$this->text_direction = 'rtl';
 	}
 
 	/**
diff --git a/wp-settings.php b/wp-settings.php
index 39f98b260..304003042 100644
--- a/wp-settings.php
+++ b/wp-settings.php
@@ -260,12 +260,11 @@ wp_templating_constants(  );
 // Load the default text localization domain.
 load_default_textdomain();
 
-// Find the blog locale.
 $locale = get_locale();
 $locale_file = WP_LANG_DIR . "/$locale.php";
-if ( ( 0 === validate_file( $locale ) ) && is_readable( $locale_file ) )
+if ( ( 0 === validate_file( $locale_file ) ) && is_readable( $locale_file ) )
 	require( $locale_file );
-unset($locale_file);
+unset( $locale_file );
 
 // Pull in locale data after loading text domain.
 require_once( ABSPATH . WPINC . '/locale.php' );