$ OUT=$(LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 smenu -t 3 -w t0005.in)

ab                        abc                       éà                        
26:07 27:07 28:07 29:07 30:07 31:07 32:07 33:07 34:07 35:07 36:07 37:07 38:07 39:07 40:07 41:07 42:07 43:07 44:07 45:07 46:07 47:07 48:07 49:07 50:07 
ùùù                       €€€€                      

$ 

$ echo ":$OUT:"

:abc:

$ exit 0