i18n

I18n::Base#transliterate

Transliterates UTF-8 characters to ASCII. By default this method will
transliterate only Latin strings to an ASCII approximation:

   I18n.transliterate("Ærøskøbing")
   # => "AEroskobing"

   I18n.transliterate("日本語")
   # => "???"

It's also possible to add support for per-locale transliterations. I18n
expects transliteration rules to be stored at
<tt>i18n.transliterate.rule</tt>.

Transliteration rules can either be a Hash or a Proc. Procs must accept a
single string argument. Hash rules inherit the default transliteration
rules, while Procs do not.

*Examples*

Setting a Hash in <locale>.yml:

   i18n:
     transliterate:
       rule:
         ü: "ue"
         ö: "oe"

Setting a Hash using Ruby:

    store_translations(:de, :i18n => {
      :transliterate => {
        :rule => {
          "ü" => "ue",
          "ö" => "oe"
        }
      }
    )

Setting a Proc:

    translit = lambda {|string| MyTransliterator.transliterate(string) }
    store_translations(:xx, :i18n => {:transliterate => {:rule => translit})

Transliterating strings:

    I18n.locale = :en
    I18n.transliterate("Jürgen") # => "Jurgen"
    I18n.locale = :de
    I18n.transliterate("Jürgen") # => "Juergen"
    I18n.transliterate("Jürgen", :locale => :en) # => "Jurgen"
    I18n.transliterate("Jürgen", :locale => :de) # => "Juergen"

Source | Google | Stack overflow