how i reinstate accented latin characters ruby?

i have an activerecord model, foo, name field. i'd users means hunt name, nonetheless i'd hunt replace box any accents. thus, i'm also storing canonical_name domain opposing search:

class foo
  validates_presence_of :name

  before_validate :set_canonical_name

  private

  def set_canonical_name
    self.canonical_name ||= canonicalize(self.name) self.name
  end

  def canonicalize(x)
    x.downcase.  # something here
  end
end

i need fill "something here" reinstate accented characters. there anything improved than

x.downcase.gsub(/[]/,'a').gsub(//,'ae').gsub(//, 'c').gsub(/[]/,'e')....

and, matter, given i'm flush 1.9, i can't put those unicode literals code. tangible unchanging expressions feeling many uglier.