I used some shp files containing Umlauts in their attributes. I checked them beforehand in ArcMap and the characters displayed properly. The cpg file tells me the encoding is UTF-8.
However the attributes don't display right in CE (2014, but I had someone who uses 2015.1 check too). Example: "Gebäude", which should be "Gebäude".
I experimented a bit trying to fix this: I changed (right-click -> properties) the project folder's encoding, the data folder's encoding, the shp file's encoding (and all of the accompanying files: cpg, dbf, prj, sbn, sbx) and the scene's encoding. I also tried adding the shp again as new layer in the old scene and in a new scene but that brought no results.
I also tried to create a completely new project, changed its encoding to UTF-8 from Cp1252 (Windows default - "inherited from container", although I'm not sure which container it's referring to since the project folder is the topmost container), before adding any data. I then added some new shp files to the project (their encoding was left at default which is now also "Inherited from container (UTF-8")) and tried to use them in a new scene but that didn't work either.
Is this encoding reassignment simply not supported?
