Hi,
your problem is also interesting for us (frenchies). I digged in the mysql manual to find what could be done:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/fulltext-boolean.html
If you search the word "accented" in this page, you will find this remark:
---- Start quote ---- Posted by Jeff Smith on May 27 2004 1:08pm [Delete] [Edit]
Keep in mind that although MATCH() AGAINST() is case-insensitive, it also is basically **accent-insensitive**. In other words, if you do not want _mangé_ to match with _mange_ (this example is in French), you have no choice but to use the BOOLEAN MODE with the double quote operator. This is the only way that MATCH() AGAINST() will make accent-sensitive matches.
E.g.:
SELECT * FROM quotes_table WHERE MATCH (quote) AGAINST ('"mangé"' IN BOOLEAN MODE)
For multiword searches:
SELECT * FROM quotes_table MATCH (quote) AGAINST ('"mangé" "pensé"' IN BOOLEAN MODE)
SELECT * FROM quotes_table MATCH (quote) AGAINST ('+"mangé" +"pensé"' IN BOOLEAN MODE)
Although the double quotes are intended to enable phrase searching, just like any web search engine for example, you can also use them to signify single words where accents and other diacritics matter.
The only drawback to this method seems to be that the asterisk operator is mutually exclusive with the double quote. Or I just haven't been able to combine both effectively. ---end quote ----
Of course, it not a "simple" thing to do. But you could ask someone (there are plenty of nice guys in this forum) to hack the search function of the wiki to include this BOOLEAN MODE predicate to meet your needs.
Hope it helps... or that someone comes up with a simplier solution.
Sincerly
François