diff --git a/developer/src/kmc-ldml/src/compiler/tran.ts b/developer/src/kmc-ldml/src/compiler/tran.ts
index 244c90d59d..38ee5e3f2c 100644
--- a/developer/src/kmc-ldml/src/compiler/tran.ts
+++ b/developer/src/kmc-ldml/src/compiler/tran.ts
@@ -141,8 +141,10 @@ export abstract class TransformCompiler<T extends TransformCompilerType, TranBas
     // don't unescape literals here, because we are going to pass them through into the regex
     cookedFrom = util.unescapeStringToRegex(cookedFrom);
 
-    // nfd here.
-    cookedFrom = MarkerParser.nfd_markers(cookedFrom, true);
+    if (!sections.meta.normalizionDisabled) {
+      // nfd here.
+      cookedFrom = MarkerParser.nfd_markers(cookedFrom, true);
+    }
 
     // cookedFrom is cooked above, since there's some special treatment
     result.from = sections.strs.allocString(cookedFrom, {
diff --git a/developer/src/kmc-ldml/test/fixtures/sections/tran/tran-vars-nfc.xml b/developer/src/kmc-ldml/test/fixtures/sections/tran/tran-vars-nfc.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d72e209ed3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/developer/src/kmc-ldml/test/fixtures/sections/tran/tran-vars-nfc.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE keyboard3 SYSTEM "../../../../../../../resources/standards-data/ldml-keyboards/techpreview/dtd/ldmlKeyboard3.dtd">
+<keyboard3 locale="mt" conformsTo="techpreview">
+  <info name="tran-vars"/>
+
+  <settings normalization="disabled" />
+
+  <keys />
+
+  <variables>
+    <string id="y" value="yes" /> <!-- a simple string-->
+    <string id="n" value="no" /> <!-- a simple string-->
+    <set id="upper" value="A B C D FF E" /> <!-- a set with 6 items. Purposely out of order.-->
+    <set id="lower" value="a b c d ƒ ƒ" /> <!-- a set with 6 items. Purposely out of order and with a dup.-->
+    <unicodeSet id="alpha" value="[a-z]" />
+    <unicodeSet id="vowels" value="[aeiou]" />
+    <unicodeSet id="consonants" value="[$[alpha]-$[vowels]]" />
+  </variables>
+
+  <transforms type="simple">
+    <transformGroup>
+      <transform from="${y}" to="${n}"/> <!-- g0t0 -->
+      <transform from="q$[upper]x"/> <!-- g0t1 -->
+      <transform from="$[consonants]"/> <!-- g0t2 -->
+      <transform from="($[upper])" to="$[1:lower]"/> <!-- g0t3 -->
+      <transform from="ι\m{a}\u{0344}" to="ἴ"/>  <!-- g0t4:  \u{03b9}\m{1}\u{0309}\u{0301} => \u{03b9}\u{0313}\u{0301} (\u1f34) -->
+      <transform from="ί\m{.}\u{033c}" to="ὶ\m{a}\u{033c}"/> <!-- g0t5 \u{03b9}\u{033c}\m{.}\u{0301} -->
+    </transformGroup>
+  </transforms>
+</keyboard3>
diff --git a/developer/src/kmc-ldml/test/test-tran.ts b/developer/src/kmc-ldml/test/test-tran.ts
index 40efcbfc2f..b91f554486 100644
--- a/developer/src/kmc-ldml/test/test-tran.ts
+++ b/developer/src/kmc-ldml/test/test-tran.ts
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import { KMXPlus, MarkerParser } from '@keymanapp/common-types';
 import Tran = KMXPlus.Tran;// for tests…
 import Bksp = KMXPlus.Bksp;// for tests…
 import { constants } from '@keymanapp/ldml-keyboard-constants';
-import { MetaCompiler } from './compiler/meta.js';
+import { MetaCompiler } from '../src/compiler/meta.js';
 const tranDependencies = [ ...BASIC_DEPENDENCIES, UsetCompiler, MetaCompiler ];
 const bkspDependencies = tranDependencies;
 
@@ -80,6 +80,48 @@ describe('tran', function () {
       }
     },
     {
+      subpath: 'sections/tran/tran-vars-nfc.xml',
+      callback(sect) {
+        const m = MarkerParser.markerOutput;
+        const tran = <Tran> sect;
+        assert.ok(tran);
+        assert.lengthOf(compilerTestCallbacks.messages, 0);
+        // cautiously destructure
+        assert.lengthOf(tran.groups, 1);
+        const [ g0 ]  = tran.groups;
+        assert.lengthOf(g0.transforms, 6);
+        const [ g0t0, g0t1, g0t2, g0t3, g0t4, g0t5 ] = g0.transforms;
+        assert.strictEqual(g0t0.from.value, "yes");
+        assert.strictEqual(g0t0.to.value, "no");
+
+        assert.strictEqual(g0t1.from.value, "q(?:A|B|C|D|FF|E)x");
+        const g0t1r = new RegExp(g0t1.from.value);
+        assert.ok(g0t1r.test('qFFx'));
+        assert.notOk(g0t1r.test('qZZx'));
+
+        assert.strictEqual(g0t2.from.value, "[b-df-hj-np-tv-z]");
+        const g0t2r = new RegExp(g0t2.from.value);
+        assert.ok(g0t2r.test('k'));
+        assert.notOk(g0t2r.test('e'));
+
+        assert.strictEqual(g0t3.from.value, "((?:A|B|C|D|FF|E))");
+        assert.equal(g0t3.mapFrom?.value, "upper");
+        assert.equal(g0t3.mapTo?.value, "lower");
+
+        assertCodePoints(g0t4.from.value,
+          `\u{03b9}${m(1, true)}\u{0344}`);
+        assertCodePoints(g0t4.to.value,
+          `\u{1f34}`);
+
+        assertCodePoints(g0t5.from.value,
+          `\u{03af}${MarkerParser.ANY_MARKER_MATCH}\u{033c}`);
+        assertCodePoints(g0t5.to.value,
+          `\u{1f76}${m(1,false)}\u{033c}`);
+      },
+      warnings: [
+        CompilerMessages.Hint_NormalizationDisabled()
+      ],
+    },    {
       subpath: 'sections/tran/fail-invalid-type.xml',
       errors: true, // XML error
     },