<?php
// Set the locale to something that's UTF-8 capable
$str = "a\u0308a\u0308";
// Convert the codepoints to entities
$str = preg_replace("/\\\\u([0-9a-fA-F]{4})/", "&#x\\1;", $str);
// Convert the entities to a UTF-8 string
// Convert the UTF-8 string to an ISO-8859-1 string
echo iconv("UTF-8", "ISO-8859-1//TRANSLIT", $str);
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