diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index abeff623dc316..b84aec36644be 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -168,7 +168,9 @@ Currently, the `@compat` macro supports the following syntaxes:
   Compat provides an unexported `Compat.Filesystem` method that is aliased to
   `Base.FS` on Julia 0.3 and 0.4 and `Base.Filesystem` on Julia 0.5.
 
-* `mktemp` and `mktempdir` now have variants which take a function as their first argument for automated cleanup. [#9017](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/9017) 
+* `mktemp` and `mktempdir` now have variants which take a function as their first argument for automated cleanup. [#9017](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/9017)
+
+* `cov` and `cor` don't allow keyword arguments anymore. Loading Compat defines compatibility methods for the new API. [#13465](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/13465)
 
 ## New types
 
diff --git a/src/Compat.jl b/src/Compat.jl
index 3b4aac235bfc1..1e9998898f295 100644
--- a/src/Compat.jl
+++ b/src/Compat.jl
@@ -793,6 +793,20 @@ if VERSION < v"0.4.0-dev+1653"
     end
 end
 
+if VERSION < v"0.5.0-dev+679"
+    import Base: cov, cor
+
+    cov(x::AbstractVector, corrected::Bool) = cov(x, corrected=corrected)
+    cov(X::AbstractMatrix, vardim::Integer) = cov(X, vardim=vardim)
+    cov(X::AbstractMatrix, vardim::Integer, corrected::Bool) = cov(X, vardim=vardim, corrected=corrected)
+    cov(x::AbstractVector, y::AbstractVector, corrected::Bool) = cov(x, y, corrected=corrected)
+    cov(X::AbstractMatrix, Y::AbstractMatrix, vardim::Integer) = cov(X, Y, vardim=vardim)
+    cov(X::AbstractMatrix, Y::AbstractMatrix, vardim::Integer, corrected::Bool) = cov(X, Y, vardim=vardim, corrected=corrected)
+
+    cor(X::AbstractMatrix, vardim::Integer) = cor(X, vardim=vardim)
+    cor(X::AbstractMatrix, Y::AbstractMatrix, vardim::Integer) = cor(X, Y, vardim=vardim)
+end
+
 if VERSION < v"0.5.0-dev+2228"
     const readstring = readall
     export readstring
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index d6dc12bb6d0f8..0cb9b31127095 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -827,3 +827,20 @@ end
 
 @test issymmetric([1 2 3; 2 2 3; 3 3 2])
 @test !issymmetric([1 3 3; 2 2 3; 3 3 2])
+
+let X = randn(10,2), Y = randn(10,2), x = randn(10), y = randn(10)
+    for b in (true, false)
+        if VERSION < v"0.5.0-dev+679"
+            @test cov(x, b) == cov(x, corrected=b)
+        end
+        for d in (1, 2)
+            @test size(cov(X, d), 1) == 8*d - 6
+            @test size(cov(X, d, b), 1) == 8*d - 6
+            @test size(cov(X, Y, d), 1) == 8*d - 6
+            @test size(cov(X, Y, d, b), 1) == 8*d - 6
+
+            @test size(cor(X, d), 1) == 8*d - 6
+            @test size(cor(X, Y, d), 1) == 8*d - 6
+        end
+    end
+end