diff --git a/jquery.timeago.js b/jquery.timeago.js
index b4c93f4..b137ea6 100644
--- a/jquery.timeago.js
+++ b/jquery.timeago.js
@@ -96,10 +96,12 @@
       return new Date(s);
     },
     datetime: function(elem) {
-      // jQuery's `is()` doesn't play well with HTML5 in IE
-      var isTime = $(elem).get(0).tagName.toLowerCase() === "time"; // $(elem).is("time");
-      var iso8601 = isTime ? $(elem).attr("datetime") : $(elem).attr("title");
+      var iso8601 = $t.isTime(elem) ? $(elem).attr("datetime") : $(elem).attr("title");
       return $t.parse(iso8601);
+    },
+    isTime: function(elem) {
+      // jQuery's `is()` doesn't play well with HTML5 in IE
+      return $(elem).get(0).tagName.toLowerCase() === "time"; // $(elem).is("time");
     }
   });
 
@@ -127,7 +129,7 @@
     if (!element.data("timeago")) {
       element.data("timeago", { datetime: $t.datetime(element) });
       var text = $.trim(element.text());
-      if (text.length > 0) {
+      if (text.length > 0 && !($t.isTime(element) && element.attr("title"))) {
         element.attr("title", text);
       }
     }