Remove accents in a string

function accent_cleaner($clean) {
$clean = ereg_replace("[áåâäàã]","a",$clean);
$clean = ereg_replace("ç","c",$clean);
$clean = ereg_replace("[êéèë]","e",$clean);
$clean = ereg_replace("[íîïì]","i",$clean);
$clean = ereg_replace("[óôöòõ]","o",$clean);
$clean = ereg_replace("[ûüùú]","u",$clean);
$clean = ereg_replace("ñ","n",$clean);
$clean = ereg_replace("[ÿý]","y",$clean);
 
$clean = ereg_replace("[ÁÅÂÄÀÃ]","A",$clean);
$clean = ereg_replace("Ç","C",$clean);
$clean = ereg_replace("[ÊÉÈË]","E",$clean);
$clean = ereg_replace("[ÍÎÏÌ]","I",$clean);
$clean = ereg_replace("[ÓÔÖÒÕ]","O",$clean);
$clean = ereg_replace("[ÛÜÙÚ]","U",$clean);
$clean = ereg_replace("Ñ","N",$clean);
$clean = ereg_replace("Ý","Y",$clean);
 
return $clean;
}
 
// Call the function
$string2clean = "Par défaut lorem ipsum ne contient pas d'accent ni de caractères spéciaux contrairement à la langue française qui en contient beaucoup.";
$cleanstring = accent_cleaner($string2clean);
echo $cleanstring;