diff --git a/doc/api/next_api_changes/2018-11-19-AL.rst b/doc/api/next_api_changes/2018-11-19-AL.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..44b01d3d3253
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/api/next_api_changes/2018-11-19-AL.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Deprecations
+````````````
+
+The `TextPath` constructor used to silently drop ignored arguments; this
+behavior is deprecated.
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/textpath.py b/lib/matplotlib/textpath.py
index b07389c72931..539ed3d3831d 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/textpath.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/textpath.py
@@ -463,9 +463,13 @@ def __init__(self, xy, s, size=None, prop=None,
         Also see :doc:`/gallery/text_labels_and_annotations/demo_text_path`.
         """
 
+        if kl or kwargs:
+            cbook.warn_deprecated(
+                "3.1", message="Additional agruments to TextPath used to be "
+                "ignored, but will trigger a TypeError %(removal)s.")
+
         if prop is None:
             prop = FontProperties()
-
         if size is None:
             size = prop.get_size_in_points()
 
@@ -473,11 +477,8 @@ def __init__(self, xy, s, size=None, prop=None,
         self.set_size(size)
 
         self._cached_vertices = None
-
-        self._vertices, self._codes = self.text_get_vertices_codes(
-                                            prop, s,
-                                            usetex=usetex)
-
+        self._vertices, self._codes = \
+            self.text_get_vertices_codes(prop, s, usetex=usetex)
         self._should_simplify = False
         self._simplify_threshold = rcParams['path.simplify_threshold']
         self._has_nonfinite = False