an update to previous post.
using regular expressions along with another filter in filter var array
$data = array(
'regxp' => "`tcafén`"
);
$args = array(
'regxp' => array(
'filter'=>FILTER_VALIDATE_REGEXP FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING,
'flags'=>FILTER_FLAG_STRIP_HIGH FILTER_FLAG_STRIP_LOW FILTER_FLAG_STRIP_BACKTICK,
'options'=>array('regexp'=>"/t(.*)/"),
));
$output=filter_var_array($data,$args);
var_dump($output); // array(1) { ["regxp"]=> string(3) "caf" }
-bruce tong