Normalize a string to ASCII: convert accents to non accented characters.

normalize_string.py

import unicodedata


def normalize(string, encoding="utf-8"):
    u"""
    Normalize a string to ASCII: convert accents to non accented characters.

    >>> normalize(u"Dès Noël où un zéphyr haï me vêt de glaçons würmiens je dîne d'exquis rôtis de bœuf au kir à l'aÿ d'âge mûr & cætera")
    "Des Noel ou un zephyr hai me vet de glacons wurmiens je dine d'exquis rotis de boeuf au kir a l'ay d'age mur & caetera"

    :type string: str | bytes | unicode
    :param string: the unicode or binary string to normalize.

    :param str encoding: Encoding used to decode binary strings.

    :return: the normalized string.
    """
    string = string.decode(encoding) if isinstance(string, type(b'')) else string
    # replace "oe" and "ae" letters, or else they are dropped!
    string = string.replace(u"æ", u"ae").replace(u"Æ", u"AE")
    string = string.replace(u"œ", u"oe").replace(u"Œ", u"OE")
    return unicodedata.normalize('NFKD', string).encode('ascii', 'ignore')