diff --git a/tools/regression/usr.bin/printf/regress.l1.out b/tools/regression/usr.bin/printf/regress.l1.out
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..9be0dc9a9e6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/regression/usr.bin/printf/regress.l1.out
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+228
diff --git a/tools/regression/usr.bin/printf/regress.l2.out b/tools/regression/usr.bin/printf/regress.l2.out
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..9be0dc9a9e6f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/regression/usr.bin/printf/regress.l2.out
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+228
diff --git a/tools/regression/usr.bin/printf/regress.sh b/tools/regression/usr.bin/printf/regress.sh
index 980fc70fe440..4ce282fb60a1 100644
--- a/tools/regression/usr.bin/printf/regress.sh
+++ b/tools/regression/usr.bin/printf/regress.sh
@@ -2,11 +2,13 @@
 
 REGRESSION_START($1)
 
-echo '1..9'
+echo '1..11'
 
 REGRESSION_TEST(`b', `printf "abc%b%b" "def\n" "\cghi"')
 REGRESSION_TEST(`d', `printf "%d,%5d,%.5d,%0*d,%.*d\n" 123 123 123 5 123 5 123')
 REGRESSION_TEST(`f', `printf "%f,%-8.3f,%f,%f\n" +42.25 -42.25 inf nan')
+REGRESSION_TEST(`l1', `LC_ALL=en_US.ISO8859-1 printf "%d\n" $(printf \"\\344)')
+REGRESSION_TEST(`l2', `LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 printf "%d\n" $(printf \"\\303\\244)')
 REGRESSION_TEST(`m1', `printf "%c%%%d\0\045\n" abc \"abc')
 REGRESSION_TEST(`m2', `printf "abc\n\cdef"')
 REGRESSION_TEST(`m3', `printf "%%%s\n" abc def ghi jkl')
diff --git a/usr.bin/printf/printf.1 b/usr.bin/printf/printf.1
index 56c685507f74..2afb9d393e6e 100644
--- a/usr.bin/printf/printf.1
+++ b/usr.bin/printf/printf.1
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
 .\"	@(#)printf.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
 .\" $FreeBSD$
 .\"
-.Dd April 25, 2011
+.Dd May 28, 2011
 .Dt PRINTF 1
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -68,8 +68,7 @@ otherwise it is evaluated as a C constant, with the following extensions:
 A leading plus or minus sign is allowed.
 .It
 If the leading character is a single or double quote, the value is the
-.Tn ASCII
-code of the next character.
+character code of the next character.
 .El
 .Pp
 The format string is reused as often as necessary to satisfy the
diff --git a/usr.bin/printf/printf.c b/usr.bin/printf/printf.c
index 56c1caf638c9..eace37050a8d 100644
--- a/usr.bin/printf/printf.c
+++ b/usr.bin/printf/printf.c
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ static const char rcsid[] =
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
+#include <wchar.h>
 
 #ifdef SHELL
 #define main printfcmd
@@ -537,10 +538,23 @@ static int
 asciicode(void)
 {
 	int ch;
+	wchar_t wch;
+	mbstate_t mbs;
 
-	ch = **gargv;
-	if (ch == '\'' || ch == '"')
-		ch = (*gargv)[1];
+	ch = (unsigned char)**gargv;
+	if (ch == '\'' || ch == '"') {
+		memset(&mbs, 0, sizeof(mbs));
+		switch (mbrtowc(&wch, *gargv + 1, MB_LEN_MAX, &mbs)) {
+		case (size_t)-2:
+		case (size_t)-1:
+			wch = (unsigned char)gargv[0][1];
+			break;
+		case 0:
+			wch = 0;
+			break;
+		}
+		ch = wch;
+	}
 	++gargv;
 	return (ch);
 }