diff --git a/icu4c/source/common/unicode/rep.h b/icu4c/source/common/unicode/rep.h
index f6d5539fb7..057a3e575c 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/common/unicode/rep.h
+++ b/icu4c/source/common/unicode/rep.h
@@ -160,39 +160,28 @@ protected:
     Replaceable();
 
     /**
-     * Constructor with initial length.
-     */
-    Replaceable(int32_t initialLength);
+     * Virtual version of length().
+     */ 
+    virtual int32_t getLength() const = 0;
 
     /**
      * Virtual version of charAt().
-     * This allows UnicodeString::charAt() to be inline again (see jitterbug 709).
      */
     virtual UChar getCharAt(UTextOffset offset) const = 0;
 
     /**
      * Virtual version of char32At().
-     * This allows UnicodeString::char32At() to be inline again (see jitterbug 709).
      */
     virtual UChar32 getChar32At(UTextOffset offset) const = 0;
-
-    /**
-     * This field must always reflect the number of UChars in the text
-     * object. A subclass must keep this up to date.
-     * Moved here from UnicodeString so that length() can be inline (see jitterbug 709).
-     */
-    int32_t   fLength;        // number characters in fArray
 };
 
-inline Replaceable::Replaceable() : fLength(0) {}
-
-inline Replaceable::Replaceable(int32_t initialLength) : fLength(initialLength) {}
+inline Replaceable::Replaceable() {}
 
 inline Replaceable::~Replaceable() {}
 
 inline int32_t
 Replaceable::length() const {
-    return fLength;
+    return getLength();
 }
 
 inline UChar
diff --git a/icu4c/source/common/unicode/unistr.h b/icu4c/source/common/unicode/unistr.h
index 08179587d4..6e9c9dde5d 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/common/unicode/unistr.h
+++ b/icu4c/source/common/unicode/unistr.h
@@ -2203,6 +2203,11 @@ public:
   //========================================
 
 protected:
+  /**
+   * Implement Replaceable::getLength() (see jitterbug 1027).
+   */
+  virtual int32_t getLength() const;
+
   /**
    * The change in Replaceable to use virtual getCharAt() allows
    * UnicodeString::charAt() to be inline again (see jitterbug 709).
@@ -2422,8 +2427,7 @@ private:
    * on 64-bit machines (8-byte pointers), it should be 40 bytes.
    */
   // (implicit) *vtable;
-  // fLength is moved into the superclass Replaceable (jitterbug 709)
-  // int32_t   fLength;        // number characters in fArray
+  int32_t   fLength;        // number of characters in fArray
   int32_t   fCapacity;      // sizeof fArray
   UChar     *fArray;        // the Unicode data
   uint16_t  fFlags;         // bit flags: see constants above
diff --git a/icu4c/source/common/unistr.cpp b/icu4c/source/common/unistr.cpp
index f2a14d4df9..51a1154c0f 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/common/unistr.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/common/unistr.cpp
@@ -94,13 +94,15 @@ UConverter* UnicodeString::fgDefaultConverter  = 0;
 // Constructors
 //========================================
 UnicodeString::UnicodeString()
-  : fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
+  : fLength(0),
+    fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
     fArray(fStackBuffer),
     fFlags(kShortString)
 {}
 
 UnicodeString::UnicodeString(int32_t capacity, UChar32 c, int32_t count)
-  : fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
+  : fLength(0),
+    fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
     fArray(0),
     fFlags(0)
 {
@@ -164,7 +166,7 @@ UnicodeString::UnicodeString(int32_t capacity, UChar32 c, int32_t count)
 }
 
 UnicodeString::UnicodeString(UChar ch)
-  : Replaceable(1),
+  : fLength(1),
     fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
     fArray(fStackBuffer),
     fFlags(kShortString)
@@ -173,7 +175,7 @@ UnicodeString::UnicodeString(UChar ch)
 }
 
 UnicodeString::UnicodeString(UChar32 ch)
-  : Replaceable(1),
+  : fLength(1),
     fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
     fArray(fStackBuffer),
     fFlags(kShortString)
@@ -184,7 +186,8 @@ UnicodeString::UnicodeString(UChar32 ch)
 }
 
 UnicodeString::UnicodeString(const UChar *text)
-  : fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
+  : fLength(0),
+    fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
     fArray(fStackBuffer),
     fFlags(kShortString)
 {
@@ -193,7 +196,8 @@ UnicodeString::UnicodeString(const UChar *text)
 
 UnicodeString::UnicodeString(const UChar *text,
                              int32_t textLength)
-  : fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
+  : fLength(0),
+    fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
     fArray(fStackBuffer),
     fFlags(kShortString)
 {
@@ -203,7 +207,7 @@ UnicodeString::UnicodeString(const UChar *text,
 UnicodeString::UnicodeString(UBool isTerminated,
                              const UChar *text,
                              int32_t textLength)
-  : Replaceable(textLength),
+  : fLength(textLength),
     fCapacity(isTerminated ? textLength + 1 : textLength),
     fArray((UChar *)text),
     fFlags(kReadonlyAlias)
@@ -220,7 +224,7 @@ UnicodeString::UnicodeString(UBool isTerminated,
 UnicodeString::UnicodeString(UChar *buff,
                              int32_t bufLength,
                              int32_t buffCapacity)
-  : Replaceable(bufLength),
+  : fLength(bufLength),
     fCapacity(buffCapacity),
     fArray(buff),
     fFlags(kWriteableAlias)
@@ -232,7 +236,8 @@ UnicodeString::UnicodeString(UChar *buff,
 
 UnicodeString::UnicodeString(const char *codepageData,
                              const char *codepage)
-  : fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
+  : fLength(0),
+    fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
     fArray(fStackBuffer),
     fFlags(kShortString)
 {
@@ -245,7 +250,8 @@ UnicodeString::UnicodeString(const char *codepageData,
 UnicodeString::UnicodeString(const char *codepageData,
                              int32_t dataLength,
                              const char *codepage)
-  : fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
+  : fLength(0),
+    fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
     fArray(fStackBuffer),
     fFlags(kShortString)
 {
@@ -255,7 +261,7 @@ UnicodeString::UnicodeString(const char *codepageData,
 }
 
 UnicodeString::UnicodeString(const UnicodeString& that)
-  : Replaceable(),
+  : fLength(0),
     fCapacity(US_STACKBUF_SIZE),
     fArray(fStackBuffer),
     fFlags(kShortString)
@@ -618,6 +624,11 @@ UnicodeString::doCaseCompare(UTextOffset start,
   }
 }
 
+int32_t
+UnicodeString::getLength() const {
+    return length();
+}
+
 UChar
 UnicodeString::getCharAt(UTextOffset offset) const {
   return charAt(offset);
diff --git a/icu4c/source/i18n/utrans.cpp b/icu4c/source/i18n/utrans.cpp
index 6dbad35f0a..7dd388d474 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/i18n/utrans.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/i18n/utrans.cpp
@@ -52,6 +52,8 @@ public:
 
 protected:
 
+    virtual int32_t getLength() const;
+
     virtual UChar getCharAt(UTextOffset offset) const;
 
     virtual UChar32 getChar32At(UTextOffset offset) const;
@@ -60,7 +62,7 @@ protected:
 
 ReplaceableGlue::ReplaceableGlue(UReplaceable *replaceable,
                                  UReplaceableCallbacks *funcCallback)
-  : Replaceable((*funcCallback->length)(replaceable))
+  : Replaceable()
 {
     this->rep = replaceable;
     this->func = funcCallback;
@@ -72,6 +74,10 @@ ReplaceableGlue::~ReplaceableGlue() {
     delete[] buf;
 }
 
+int32_t ReplaceableGlue::getLength() const {
+    return (*func->length)(rep);
+}
+
 UChar ReplaceableGlue::getCharAt(UTextOffset offset) const {
     return (*func->charAt)(rep, offset);
 }
@@ -91,12 +97,10 @@ void ReplaceableGlue::handleReplaceBetween(UTextOffset start,
     }
     text.extract(0, len, buf);
     (*func->replace)(rep, start, limit, buf, len);
-    fLength = (*func->length)(rep);
 }
 
 void ReplaceableGlue::copy(int32_t start, int32_t limit, int32_t dest) {
     (*func->copy)(rep, start, limit, dest);
-    fLength = (*func->length)(rep);
 }
 
 /********************************************************************