diff --git a/Lib/shlex.py b/Lib/shlex.py
index f4c4ad8e484..595ea890433 100644
--- a/Lib/shlex.py
+++ b/Lib/shlex.py
@@ -316,7 +316,11 @@ def split(s, comments=False, posix=True):
     lex.whitespace_split = True
     if not comments:
         lex.commenters = ''
-    return list(lex)
+
+    if isinstance(s, bytes):
+        return [i.encode("ascii") for i in lex]
+    else:
+        return list(lex)
 
 
 def join(split_command):
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_shlex.py b/Lib/test/test_shlex.py
index ae9a6033e15..517d10aa421 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_shlex.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_shlex.py
@@ -171,9 +171,9 @@ class ShlexTest(unittest.TestCase):
         """Test data splitting with posix parser"""
         self.splitTest(self.posix_data, comments=True)
 
-    def splitBytesTest(self):
+    def testSplitBytes(self):
         """Test byte objects splitting"""
-        self.assertEqual(shlex.split(b"split words"), [b"hello", b"world"])
+        self.assertEqual(shlex.split(b"split words"), [b"split", b"words"])
 
     def testCompat(self):
         """Test compatibility interface"""