Single-Byte Character Sets and Export and Import

Some 8-bit characters can be lost (that is, converted to 7-bit equivalents) when you import an 8-bit character set export file. This occurs if the system on which the import occurs has a native 7-bit character set, or the NLS_LANG operating system environment variable is set to a 7-bit character set. Most often, this is apparent when accented characters lose the accent mark.

To avoid this unwanted conversion, you can set the NLS_LANG operating system environment variable to be that of the export file character set.