Re: Origin of phonetic alphabet

[Marc Santacroce <santa -at- TFS -dot- COM>]

At 2:29 PM 6/1/95, Shelley Strong wrote:
>Does anyone know the reasoning behind the words that make up the U.S.
>military's phonetic alphabet?

>They seem to be highly recognizable words that are also unlikely to be
>misinterpreted, which is the whole purpose of having a phonetic alphabet.
>But did someone determine that "November is the most unusual "n" word,
>foxtrot is the clearest spoken "f" word (I doubt *that*!), etc.?

>These words are very handy to *clearly* relay letters over the telephone.
>For example, in an ID number, the letters "s" and "f" sound very much alike.

>BTW, the phonetic alphabet I have is

>Alfa    Hotel   Oscar   Uniform
>Bravo   India   Papa    Victor
>Charlie Juliet  Quebec  Whiskey
>Delta   Kilo    Romeo   Xray
>Echo    Lima    Sierra  Yankee
>Foxtrot Mike    Tango   Zulu
>Golf    November
===============
If I remember correctly, the current military phonetic alphabet is a NATO
derivative designed to be most intelligible by people from NATO language
groups. It replaces the old able, baker, charlie, sugar (the only ones I
can remember) from the WWII days.

The alphabet you have is correct. There is always some disagreement on the
pronounciation of PApa or paPA, KWEbek of KAYbeck. The rest is pretty
standardized.

=======================

M_a_r_c_ A. _S_a_n_t_a_c_r_o_c_e_________________________
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