diff --git a/libraries/joomla/language/language.php b/libraries/joomla/language/language.php
index 9c98ad9ad6e66..16dfcbcbb1802 100644
--- a/libraries/joomla/language/language.php
+++ b/libraries/joomla/language/language.php
@@ -251,6 +251,7 @@ public function __construct($lang = null, $debug = false)
 			 * -a getUpperLimitSearchWord method
 			 * -a getSearchDisplayCharactersNumber method
 			 */
+
 			if (method_exists($class, 'transliterate'))
 			{
 				$this->transliterator = array($class, 'transliterate');
@@ -394,15 +395,20 @@ public function _($string, $jsSafe = false, $interpretBackSlashes = true)
 	 */
 	public function transliterate($string)
 	{
+		// Override custom and core transliterate method with native php function if enabled
+		if (function_exists('transliterator_transliterate') && function_exists('iconv'))
+		{
+			return iconv("UTF-8", "ASCII//TRANSLIT//IGNORE", transliterator_transliterate('Any-Latin; Latin-ASCII; Lower()', $string));
+		}
+
 		if ($this->transliterator !== null)
 		{
 			return call_user_func($this->transliterator, $string);
 		}
 
 		$string = JLanguageTransliterate::utf8_latin_to_ascii($string);
-		$string = StringHelper::strtolower($string);
 
-		return $string;
+		return StringHelper::strtolower($string);
 	}
 
 	/**