Embedded languages in markdown?

[jporkkahtc]

"SlickEdit® recognizes languages embedded in HTML, COBOL, Perl scripts, and UNIX shell scripts"
Can we get this in markdown too?
https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/wiki/Markdown-Cheatsheet

Code: [Select]

```javascript
var s = "JavaScript syntax highlighting";
alert(s);
```
 
```python
s = "Python syntax highlighting"
print s
```

R markdown does it slightly differently (why?) - requires {language [options]}

Code: [Select]

```{r echo=FALSE}
plot(pressure)
```