I've created a <charinsert> extension which
produces the little
javascript inserter bits for the characters you feed it. This can be
used in wikitext, such as the 'copyrightwarning' messages which was
previously HTML.
I set up the English Wikipedia chars again using this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Copyrightwarning
Please feel free to set up the appropriate equivalents at the other
'pedias, 'tionaries, and all.