set names utf8; show variables like '%char%'; CREATE TABLE `aleppo1phrase` ( `count` int(11) NOT NULL, `phrase` varchar(255) collate utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`phrase`) ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci; insert into aleppo1phrase values (1,'{ס}'), (2,'{פ}'), (3,'אשר'), (4,'את'), (5,'אל'), (6,'איש'), (7,'על'), (8,'עד'), (9,'לא'), (10,'לו'), (11,'מלך'), (12,'בני'), (13,'בן'), (14,'בית'), (15,'המלך'), (16,'ואת'), (17,'ולא'), (18,'ויאמר'), (19,'כל'), (20,'כי'), (21,'ישראל'), (22,'יהוה'); select count,phrase,hex(phrase),hex(convert (phrase using utf8)),hex(convert(phrase using hebrew)) from aleppo1phrase order by phrase;