diff --git a/core/includes/theme.inc b/core/includes/theme.inc
index d75fbd7..f2cae6e 100644
--- a/core/includes/theme.inc
+++ b/core/includes/theme.inc
@@ -659,7 +659,7 @@ function _theme_build_registry($theme, $base_theme, $theme_engine) {
  *     their base theme), direct sub-themes of sub-themes, etc. The keys are
  *     the themes' machine names, and the values are the themes' human-readable
  *     names. This element is not set if there are no themes on the system that
- *     declare this theme as their base theme. 
+ *     declare this theme as their base theme.
 */
 function list_themes($refresh = FALSE) {
   $list = &drupal_static(__FUNCTION__, array());
@@ -2135,6 +2135,8 @@ function theme_feed_icon($variables) {
  *       - meta: To provide meta information, such as a page refresh.
  *       - link: To refer to stylesheets and other contextual information.
  *       - script: To load JavaScript.
+ *     - #newline: TRUE if a newline character should be appended to the end of
+ *       the tag. Defaults to TRUE.
  *     - #attributes: (optional) An array of HTML attributes to apply to the
  *       tag.
  *     - #value: (optional) A string containing tag content, such as inline CSS.
@@ -2146,8 +2148,9 @@ function theme_feed_icon($variables) {
 function theme_html_tag($variables) {
   $element = $variables['element'];
   $attributes = isset($element['#attributes']) ? drupal_attributes($element['#attributes']) : '';
+  $output = '';
   if (!isset($element['#value'])) {
-    return '<' . $element['#tag'] . $attributes . " />\n";
+    $output = '<' . $element['#tag'] . $attributes . ' />';
   }
   else {
     $output = '<' . $element['#tag'] . $attributes . '>';
@@ -2158,9 +2161,13 @@ function theme_html_tag($variables) {
     if (isset($element['#value_suffix'])) {
       $output .= $element['#value_suffix'];
     }
-    $output .= '</' . $element['#tag'] . ">\n";
-    return $output;
+    $output .= '</' . $element['#tag'] . '>';
+  }
+  $newline = isset($element['#newline']) ? $element['#newline'] : TRUE;
+  if (!empty($output) && $newline) {
+    $output .= "\n";
   }
+  return $output;
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/core/modules/system/lib/Drupal/system/Tests/Theme/HtmlTagUnitTest.php b/core/modules/system/lib/Drupal/system/Tests/Theme/HtmlTagUnitTest.php
index d359038..c5fda8a 100644
--- a/core/modules/system/lib/Drupal/system/Tests/Theme/HtmlTagUnitTest.php
+++ b/core/modules/system/lib/Drupal/system/Tests/Theme/HtmlTagUnitTest.php
@@ -32,5 +32,9 @@ class HtmlTagUnitTest extends UnitTestBase {
     // Test title tag generation
     $tag['element'] = array('#tag' => 'title', '#value' => 'title test');
     $this->assertEqual('<title>title test</title>'."\n", theme_html_tag($tag), t('Test title tag generation.'));
+
+    // Test span tag generation without trailing newline.
+    $tag['element'] = array('#tag' => 'span', '#newline' => FALSE, '#value' => 'span test');
+    $this->assertEqual('<span>span test</span>', theme_html_tag($tag), t('Test span tag generation without newline.'));
   }
 }
diff --git a/core/modules/system/system.module b/core/modules/system/system.module
index a530c30..4fb82a0 100644
--- a/core/modules/system/system.module
+++ b/core/modules/system/system.module
@@ -316,6 +316,7 @@ function system_element_info() {
     '#pre_render' => array('drupal_pre_render_conditional_comments'),
     '#attributes' => array(),
     '#value' => NULL,
+    '#newline' => TRUE,
   );
   $types['styles'] = array(
     '#items' => array(),