Here's an example of a function I might use (although I haven't actually got plperl installed, so can't test it myself, but you'll get the idea:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION unaccent_string(text) RETURNS text AS $$
my ($input_string) = @_;
$input_string =~ s/[âãäåāăą]/a;
$input_string =~ s/[ÁÂÃÄÅĀĂĄ]/A;
$input_string =~ s/[èééêëēĕėęě]/e;
$input_string =~ s/[ĒĔĖĘĚ]/E;
$input_string =~ s/[ìíîïìĩīĭ]/i;
$input_string =~ s/[ÌÍÎÏÌĨĪĬ]/I;
$input_string =~ s/[óôõöōŏő]/o;
$input_string =~ s/[ÒÓÔÕÖŌŎŐ]/O;
$input_string =~ s/[ùúûüũūŭů]/u;
$input_string =~ s/[ÙÚÛÜŨŪŬŮ]/U;
return $input_string;
$$ LANGUAGE plperl;
Regards
Thom
