diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4bd123e..e0c3cb5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -24,6 +24,21 @@ transformSpaces('Hello   world');
     }
 ```
 
+### transformDiacritics(str)
+- removes diacritics of *str* 
+- returns an object consisting of *str* without diacritics and a mapping which indicates the relation between the original and the transformed string 
+``` 
+transformDiacritics('Straße');
+=>  {
+      str: 'Strasse',
+      mapping: [
+        { transformed: 4, original: 4 },
+        { transformed: 2, original: 1 },
+        { transformed: 1, original: 1 },
+      ],
+    }
+``` 
+
 ### backTransformPositions(positions, mapping)
 - returns the positions in the original string as an array
 ```
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 092e076..7c29d2e 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "srch",
-  "version": "1.2.1",
+  "version": "1.3.0",
   "description": "full text search",
   "main": "src/index.js",
   "scripts": {
@@ -18,6 +18,26 @@
     "nyc": "^10.0.0",
     "should": "^11.1.0"
   },
+  "keywords": [
+    "search",
+    "string",
+    "index",
+    "full text",
+    "mapping",
+    "lower case",
+    "diacritics",
+    "space"
+  ],
   "author": "Jennifer Gebske <jennifer@paperhive.org>",
-  "license": "GPL-3.0"
+  "license": "GPL-3.0",
+  "repository": {
+    "type": "git",
+    "url": "https://github.com/paperhive/srch.git"
+  },
+  "bugs": {
+    "url": "https://github.com/paperhive/srch/issues"
+  },
+  "dependencies": {
+    "diacritics": "^1.3.0"
+  }
 }
diff --git a/src/index.js b/src/index.js
index 71ad3ea..442ebb1 100644
--- a/src/index.js
+++ b/src/index.js
@@ -1,8 +1,12 @@
+const diacriticsMap = require('diacritics').diacriticsMap;
+
+
 // cf. https://github.com/sindresorhus/escape-string-regexp
 function escapeRegExpCharacters(str) {
   return str.replace(/[|\\{}()[\]^$+*?.]/g, '\\$&');
 }
 
+
 exports.findPositions = function findPositions(fullstr, searchstr) {
   const regExpSearchstr = new RegExp(escapeRegExpCharacters(searchstr), 'g');
   let match = [];
@@ -44,6 +48,40 @@ exports.transformSpaces = function transformSpaces(str) {
 };
 
 
+exports.transformDiacritics = function transformDiacritics(str) {
+  const mapping = [];
+  let lastOffsetOriginal = 0;
+  let lastOffsetTransformed = 0;
+  const transformedStr = str.replace(/[^\u0000-\u007e]/g, (match, offset) => {
+    const replacement = diacriticsMap[match] || match;
+
+    if (replacement.length > 1) {
+      const remain = offset - lastOffsetOriginal;
+      mapping.push({ transformed: remain, original: remain });
+      mapping.push({ transformed: replacement.length, original: match.length });
+
+      lastOffsetOriginal = offset + match.length;
+      lastOffsetTransformed += remain + replacement.length;
+    }
+
+    return replacement;
+  });
+
+  const lenRestTransformed = transformedStr.length - lastOffsetTransformed;
+  const lenRestOriginal = str.length - lastOffsetOriginal;
+
+  if (lenRestOriginal !== lenRestTransformed) throw new Error('strings out of sync');
+  if (lenRestOriginal) {
+    mapping.push({
+      transformed: transformedStr.length - lastOffsetTransformed,
+      original: str.length - lastOffsetOriginal,
+    });
+  }
+
+  return { str: transformedStr, mapping };
+};
+
+
 // assumes that elements in positions are sorted
 exports.backTransformPositions = function backTransformPositions(positions, mapping) {
   const transformedPositions = [];
@@ -132,7 +170,8 @@ function transform(transformations, str) {
 
 exports.SearchIndex = class SearchIndex {
   constructor(str) {
-    this.transformations = [exports.transformSpaces, transformLowercase];
+    this.transformations =
+      [exports.transformSpaces, exports.transformDiacritics, transformLowercase];
 
     const {transformedStr, mapping} = transform(this.transformations, str);
     this.transformedStr = transformedStr;
diff --git a/test/index.js b/test/index.js
index 9079b13..a287e0b 100644
--- a/test/index.js
+++ b/test/index.js
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ describe('findPositions()', () => {
   });
 });
 
+
 describe('transformSpaces', () => {
   it('should return input if no multiple spaces', () => {
     srch.transformSpaces('this is a test')
@@ -47,6 +48,54 @@ describe('transformSpaces', () => {
   });
 });
 
+
+describe('transformDiacritics', () => {
+  it('should return input if no diacritics', () => {
+    srch.transformDiacritics('this is a test')
+      .should.eql({
+        str: 'this is a test',
+        mapping: [{ transformed: 14, original: 14 }],
+      });
+  });
+
+  it('should remove diacritics (mapping: original shorter than transformed)', () => {
+    srch.transformDiacritics('Straße')
+      .should.eql({
+        str: 'Strasse',
+        mapping: [
+          { transformed: 4, original: 4 },
+          { transformed: 2, original: 1 },
+          { transformed: 1, original: 1 },
+        ],
+      });
+  });
+
+  it('should remove diacritics of 2 words (mapping: original shorter than transformed)', () => {
+    srch.transformDiacritics('Spaß mit Soße')
+      .should.eql({
+        str: 'Spass mit Sosse',
+        mapping: [
+          { transformed: 3, original: 3 },
+          { transformed: 2, original: 1 },
+          { transformed: 7, original: 7 },
+          { transformed: 2, original: 1 },
+          { transformed: 1, original: 1 },
+        ],
+      });
+  });
+
+  it('should remove diacritics (mapping: original equal to transformed)', () => {
+    srch.transformDiacritics('Iлｔèｒｎåｔïｏｎɑｌíƶａｔï߀ԉ')
+      .should.eql({
+        str: 'Internationalizati0n',
+        mapping: [
+          { transformed: 20, original: 20 },
+        ],
+      });
+  });
+});
+
+
 describe('backTransformPositions()', () => {
   it('should return the original positions', () => {
     // original:    'hällo  world'
@@ -64,6 +113,7 @@ describe('backTransformPositions()', () => {
   });
 });
 
+
 describe('backTransformRange', () => {
   const transformations = [
     {original: 3, transformed: 3, textObject: 1},
@@ -175,6 +225,7 @@ describe('backTransformRange', () => {
   });
 });
 
+
 describe('SearchIndex', () => {
   it('should find ranges', () => {
     const index = new srch.SearchIndex('this  is a  test');