diff -r 3a880d640981 Lib/concurrent/futures/process.py
--- a/Lib/concurrent/futures/process.py	Tue Sep 18 07:21:18 2012 +0300
+++ b/Lib/concurrent/futures/process.py	Tue Sep 18 16:58:33 2012 +0100
@@ -382,7 +382,25 @@
             p.start()
             self._processes[p.pid] = p
 
-    def submit(self, fn, *args, **kwargs):
+    def submit(*args, **kwargs):
+        # Do manual processing of arguments in order to allow 'self' and 'fn'
+        # as keyword argument names.
+        if args:
+            self, *args = args
+        elif 'self' in kwargs:
+            self = kwargs.pop('self')
+        else:
+            raise TypeError(
+                "submit() missing required positional argument: 'self'")
+
+        if args:
+            fn, *args = args
+        elif 'fn' in kwargs:
+            fn = kwargs.pop('fn')
+        else:
+            raise TypeError(
+                "submit() missing required positional argument: 'fn'")
+
         with self._shutdown_lock:
             if self._broken:
                 raise BrokenProcessPool('A child process terminated '
diff -r 3a880d640981 Lib/concurrent/futures/thread.py
--- a/Lib/concurrent/futures/thread.py	Tue Sep 18 07:21:18 2012 +0300
+++ b/Lib/concurrent/futures/thread.py	Tue Sep 18 16:58:33 2012 +0100
@@ -91,7 +91,25 @@
         self._shutdown = False
         self._shutdown_lock = threading.Lock()
 
-    def submit(self, fn, *args, **kwargs):
+    def submit(*args, **kwargs):
+        # Do manual processing of arguments in order to allow 'self' and 'fn'
+        # as keyword argument names.
+        if args:
+            self, *args = args
+        elif 'self' in kwargs:
+            self = kwargs.pop('self')
+        else:
+            raise TypeError(
+                "submit() missing required positional argument: 'self'")
+
+        if args:
+            fn, *args = args
+        elif 'fn' in kwargs:
+            fn = kwargs.pop('fn')
+        else:
+            raise TypeError(
+                "submit() missing required positional argument: 'fn'")
+
         with self._shutdown_lock:
             if self._shutdown:
                 raise RuntimeError('cannot schedule new futures after shutdown')
diff -r 3a880d640981 Lib/test/test_concurrent_futures.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_concurrent_futures.py	Tue Sep 18 07:21:18 2012 +0300
+++ b/Lib/test/test_concurrent_futures.py	Tue Sep 18 16:58:33 2012 +0100
@@ -42,6 +42,10 @@
     return x * y
 
 
+def awkward(*, fn):
+    return fn * 13
+
+
 def sleep_and_raise(t):
     time.sleep(t)
     raise Exception('this is an exception')
@@ -396,6 +400,10 @@
         self.executor.map(str, [2] * (self.worker_count + 1))
         self.executor.shutdown()
 
+    def test_awkward_keyword_name(self):
+        future = self.executor.submit(awkward, fn=7)
+        self.assertEqual(future.result(), 91)
+
 
 class ThreadPoolExecutorTest(ThreadPoolMixin, ExecutorTest):
     def test_map_submits_without_iteration(self):