diff --git a/cmake/KF5I18nMacros.cmake.in b/cmake/KF5I18nMacros.cmake.in
--- a/cmake/KF5I18nMacros.cmake.in
+++ b/cmake/KF5I18nMacros.cmake.in
@@ -89,15 +89,23 @@
 #
 # KI18N_INSTALL(po) does the following:
 # - Compiles kfoo.po into kfoo.mo and installs it in
-#   ${LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR}/fr/LC_MESSAGES or share/locale/fr/LC_MESSAGES if
-#   ${LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR} is not set.
-# - Installs kfoo.js in ${LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR}/fr/LC_SCRIPTS/kfoo
+#   <locale_install_dir>/fr/LC_MESSAGES
+# - Installs kfoo.js in <locale_install_dir>/fr/LC_SCRIPTS/kfoo
+# where <locale_install_dir> is taken from the CMake variable ``LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR``
+# or, if not set, ``KDE_INSTALL_LOCALEDIR``, or, if also not set, will default
+# to "share/locale".
+#
 #
 # KI18N_INSTALL_TS_FILES() is deprecated, use KI18N_INSTALL()
 #
 function(KI18N_INSTALL podir)
-    if (NOT LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR)
-        set(LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR share/locale)
+    # LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR will not be set by KDEInstallDirs if KDE_INSTALL_DIRS_NO_DEPRECATED is set
+    if (LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR)
+        set(locale_installdir "${LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR}")
+    elseif(KDE_INSTALL_LOCALEDIR)
+        set(locale_installdir "${KDE_INSTALL_LOCALEDIR}")
+    else()
+        set(locale_installdir "share/locale")
     endif()
 
     # First try to find the po directory in the source directory, where the release scripts copy them before making the tarballs
@@ -111,12 +119,12 @@
 
     if (NOT (EXISTS "${absolute_podir}" AND IS_DIRECTORY "${absolute_podir}"))
         # Nothing to do if there's no podir and it would create an empty
-        # LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR in that case.
+        # locale_installdir in that case.
         return()
     endif()
 
-    get_filename_component(dirname ${LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR} NAME)
-    get_filename_component(destname ${LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR} DIRECTORY)
+    get_filename_component(dirname ${locale_installdir} NAME)
+    get_filename_component(destname ${locale_installdir} DIRECTORY)
     string(MD5 pathmd5 ${absolute_podir})
 
     add_custom_target(pofiles-${pathmd5} ALL
@@ -153,6 +161,15 @@
 #install the scripts for a given language in the target folder
 #usage: KI18N_INSTALL_TS_FILES("ja" ${scripts_dir})
 function(KI18N_INSTALL_TS_FILES lang scripts_dir)
+    # backward-compatible fallback to common vars as set when using KDEInstallDirs
+    if (LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR)
+        set(locale_installdir "${LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR}")
+    elseif(KDE_INSTALL_LOCALEDIR)
+        set(locale_installdir "${KDE_INSTALL_LOCALEDIR}")
+    else()
+        set(locale_installdir "share/locale")
+    endif()
+
    file(GLOB_RECURSE ts_files RELATIVE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} ${scripts_dir}/*)
    set(pmapc_files)
    foreach(ts_file ${ts_files})
@@ -163,7 +180,7 @@
          get_filename_component(subpath ${ts_file} DIRECTORY)
          get_filename_component(subpath ${subpath} NAME)
          install(FILES ${ts_file}
-                 DESTINATION ${LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR}/${lang}/LC_SCRIPTS/${subpath})
+                 DESTINATION ${locale_installdir}/${lang}/LC_SCRIPTS/${subpath})
          # If current file is a pmap, also install the compiled version.
          get_filename_component(ts_ext ${ts_file} EXT)
          if(ts_ext STREQUAL ".pmap")
@@ -180,7 +197,7 @@
                ${pmapc_file}
                DEPENDS ${pmap_file})
             install(FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${pmapc_file}
-                    DESTINATION ${LOCALE_INSTALL_DIR}/${lang}/LC_SCRIPTS/${subpath}
+                    DESTINATION ${locale_installdir}/${lang}/LC_SCRIPTS/${subpath}
                     RENAME ${pmapc_basename})
             list(APPEND pmapc_files ${pmapc_file})
          endif()