export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

a=$'\303\251'

echo "$a"

echo ${#a}

b=$'A\303\251B'

echo "$b"

echo ${b: -1}

c=AeB

echo ${c: -1}

unset a
a=$(printf '%b' 'A\303\251B')
IFS=$(printf '%b' '\303\251')

case "$a" in
"A${IFS}B")	echo ok 1 ;;
*)		echo bad 1 ;;
esac

set $a

case $1 in
A)		echo ok 2 ;;
*)		echo bad 2 ;;
esac

set a b

printf '%s\n' "$*"
printf '%s' "$*" | od -b