diff --git a/src/static/js/html10n.js b/src/static/js/html10n.js
index ca17bb0ec..dc5839678 100644
--- a/src/static/js/html10n.js
+++ b/src/static/js/html10n.js
@@ -163,6 +163,8 @@ window.html10n = (function(window, document, undefined) {
   MicroEvent.mixin(html10n)
   
   html10n.macros = {}
+
+  html10n.rtl = ["ar","dv","fa","ha","he","ks","ku","ps","ur","yi"]
   
   /**
    * Get rules for plural forms (shared with JetPack), see:
@@ -831,6 +833,14 @@ window.html10n = (function(window, document, undefined) {
     return this.language;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Returns the direction of the language returned be html10n#getLanguage
+   */
+  html10n.getDirection = function() {
+    var langCode = this.language.indexOf('-') == -1? this.language : this.language.substr(0, this.language.indexOf('-'))
+    return html10n.rtl.indexOf(langCode) == -1? 'ltr' : 'rtl'
+  }
+
   /**
    * Index all <link>s
    */
diff --git a/src/static/js/l10n.js b/src/static/js/l10n.js
index 7556b7404..a67a7c1a4 100644
--- a/src/static/js/l10n.js
+++ b/src/static/js/l10n.js
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 (function(document) {
   // Set language for l10n
-  var language = document.cookie.match(/language=(\w{2,3})(-w+)?/);
+  var language = document.cookie.match(/language=((\w{2,3})(-w+)?)/);
   if(language) language = language[1];
   
   html10n.bind('indexed', function() {
@@ -9,5 +9,6 @@
   
   html10n.bind('localized', function() {
     document.documentElement.lang = html10n.getLanguage()
+    document.documentElement.dir = html10n.getDirection()
   })
 })(document)
\ No newline at end of file