SQL Query Help - Accented Characters

Hello, I am trying to filter out any accented characters from a field in a select statement. I want to keep the accented version in the database, but have it convert when exporting.
Here is a sample of the php code that I used to use to accomplish this...

Code:


$shipfirstname = ereg_replace("[àâäåãáÂÄÀÅÃÁæÆ]", "a", $shipfirstname);
$shipfirstname = ereg_replace("[çÇ]", "c", $shipfirstname);
$shipfirstname = ereg_replace("[éèêëÉÊËÈ]", "e", $shipfirstname);
$shipfirstname = ereg_replace("[ïîìíÏÎÌÍ]", "i", $shipfirstname);
$shipfirstname = ereg_replace("[ñÑ]", "n", $shipfirstname);
$shipfirstname = ereg_replace("[öôóòõÓÔÖÒÕ]", "o", $shipfirstname);
$shipfirstname = ereg_replace("[ùûüúÜÛÙÚ]", "u", $shipfirstname);
$shipfirstname = ereg_replace("[ÿ]", "y", $shipfirstname);


So far, I have this sql code, but I will have to use a number of nested REPLACE statements to accomplish the same thing.

Code:

(SELECT REPLACE(ShipFirstName, 'à', 'a'))AS ShipFirstName,



Does anyone know an easier way to filter out these characters?