FAA radiotelephony phonetic alphabet and Morse code chart.

The NATO phonetic alphabet, more formally the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet, is the most widely used spelling alphabet. Though often called "phonetic alphabets", spelling alphabets have no connection to phonetic transcription systems like the International Phonetic Alphabet. Instead, the NATO alphabet assigns code words to the letters of the English alphabet acrophonically (Alfa for A, Bravo for B, etc.) so that critical combinations of letters (and numbers) can be pronounced and understood by those who transmit and receive voice messages by radio or telephone regardless of their native language, especially when the safety of navigation or persons is essential. The paramount reason is to ensure intelligibility of voice signals over radio links. Image File history File links FAA_Phonetic_and_Morse_Chart2. ... Image File history File links FAA_Phonetic_and_Morse_Chart2. ... 1922 Chart of the Morse Code Letters and Numerals Morse code is a method for transmitting telegraphic information, using standardized sequences of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a message. ... A spelling alphabet, radio alphabet, or telephone alphabet is a set of words which are used to stand for the letters of an alphabet. ... Phonetic transcription (or phonetic notation) is the visual system of symbolization of the sounds occurring in spoken human language. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... The modern English alphabet consists of 26 letters[1] derived from the Latin alphabet: The exact shape of printed letters varies depending on the typeface. ... In an acrophonic alphabet the initial (Greek: acro) sound (phonos) of a word gives the name to the whole. ...

International

Adoption

It is used by many national and international organizations, including the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). It is a subset of the much older International Code of Signals (INTERCO), which originally included visual signals by flags or flashing light, sound signals by whistle, siren, foghorn, or bell, as well as one, two, or three letter codes for many phrases.^[1] The same alphabetic code words are used by all agencies, but each agency chooses one of two different sets of numeric code words. NATO uses the regular English numeric words (Zero, One, with some alternative pronunciations), whereas the IMO uses compound numeric words (Nadazero, Unaone). The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an agency of the United Nations, codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth. ... The International Telecommunication Union (ITU; French: Union internationale des télécommunications, Spanish: Unión Internacional de Telecomunicaciones) is an international organization established to standardize and regulate international radio and telecommunications. ... Headquarters of the International Maritime Organisation in Lambeth, adjacent to the east end of Lambeth Bridge Headquarters building taken from the west side of the Thames Headquartered in London, U.K., the International Maritime Organization (IMO) promotes cooperation among governments and the shipping industry to improve maritime safety and to... NATO 2002 Summit in Prague The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, the Atlantic Alliance or the Western Alliance, is an international organisation for collective security established in 1949, in support of the North Atlantic Treaty signed in Washington, DC, on 4 April 1949. ... FAA redirects here. ... The American National Standards Institute or ANSI (pronounced an-see) is a nonprofit organization that oversees the development of standards for products, services, processes and systems in the United States. ... The International Code of Signals (INTERCO) is a signal code to be used by merchant and naval vessels to communicate important messages about the state of a vessel and the intent of its master or commander when there are language barriers. ...

Common name

The alphabet's common name (NATO phonetic alphabet) arose because it appears in Allied Tactical Publication ATP-1, Volume II: Allied Maritime Signal and Maneuvering Book used by all allied navies in NATO, which adopted a modified form of the International Code of Signals. Because the latter allows messages to be spelled via flags or Morse code, it naturally called the code words used to spell out messages by voice its "phonetic alphabet". The name NATO phonetic alphabet became widespread because the signals used to facilitate the naval communications and tactics of the United States and NATO have become global.^[2] However, ATP-1 is marked NATO Confidential (or the lower NATO Restricted) so it is not publicly available. Nevertheless, a NATO unclassified version of the document is provided to foreign, even hostile, militaries, even though they are not allowed to make it publicly available. 1922 Chart of the Morse Code Letters and Numerals Morse code is a method for transmitting telegraphic information, using standardized sequences of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a message. ...

Language

Most of the words are recognizable by native English speakers because English must be used upon request for communication between an aircraft and a control tower whenever two nations are involved, regardless of their native languages. English is not required domestically, thus if both parties to a radio conversation are from the same country, then another phonetic alphabet of that nation's choice may be used.

In most versions of the alphabet, the non-English spellings Alfa and Juliett are found. Alfa is spelled with an f as it is in most European languages. The English and French spelling alpha would not be properly pronounced by speakers of some other languages whose native speakers may not know that ph should be pronounced as f. Juliett is spelled with a tt for native French speakers because they may treat a single final t as silent. In English versions of the alphabet, like that from ANSI, one or both may revert to their standard English spelling.

Alphabet and pronunciation

The pronunciation of the words in the alphabet as well as numbers may vary according to the language habits of the speakers. In order to eliminate wide variations in pronunciation, posters illustrating the pronunciation desired are available from the ICAO.

Letters

For other uses of A, see A (disambiguation). ... For other uses of B, see B (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see SIC. Sic is a Latin word meaning thus, so, as such, or just as that. In writing, it is placed within square brackets and usually italicized—[sic]—to indicate that an incorrect or unusual spelling, phrase, punctuation, and/or other preceding quoted material has been reproduced... Look up C, c in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see D (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see E (disambiguation). ... For other uses of F, see F (disambiguation). ... For other uses of G, see G (disambiguation). ... Look up H, h in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up I, i in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... J# redirects here for technical reasons; see J Sharp. ... For other uses, see K (disambiguation). ... For other uses of L, see L (disambiguation). ... For other uses of M, see M (disambiguation). ... For other uses of N, see N (disambiguation). ... Look up O, o in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the Latin alphabet letter. ... This article is about the Latin alphabet letter. ... Look up R, r in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up S, s in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see T (disambiguation). ... For other uses of U, see U (disambiguation). ... Look up V, v in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up W, w in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see X (disambiguation). ... For other uses of Y, see Y (disambiguation). ... Look up Z, z in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Digits

Zero redirects here. ... This article is about the number one. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article is about the number. ... This article discusses the number Four. ... Look up five in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up six in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Seven Days of Creation - 1765 book, title page 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. ... Look up eight in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the number. ...

Pronunciation

The spelling and pronunciation given is that officially prescribed by the ICAO, ITU, IMO, and the FAA. The ICAO indicates unstressed numeric syllables in lower case (stressed in UPPER CASE), unlike its own alphabet, where stressed syllables are UNDERLINED UPPER CASE (unstressed in UPPER CASE). In the interests of uniformity, the IMO/FAA style of stressed syllables in BOLD will be used here (underlines might be confused with links).

Wherever the agencies (ICAO, ITU, IMO, FAA, ANSI) differ, each agency's preferred pronunciations or spellings are also given in the table. The ICAO, ITU, and IMO give an alternate pronunciation for a couple of letter-words. The FAA gives the alternate pronunciations in one publication as shown by the image on this page, but in other publications it does not. The FAA gives different spellings for their pronunciations depending on the publication consulted. These are from the FAA Flight Services manual (§ 14.1.5) and the ATC manual (§ 2-4-16). ANSI gives English spellings, but does not give pronunciations or numbers. The ICAO, NATO, and FAA use the common English number words (with stress), which are also the second component of the more complex ITU and IMO number words (no stress).^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

Only the ICAO prescribes any kind of IPA pronunciation (and then only for letters, not numbers). It is a broad transcription because many different pronunciations of each code word are allowed, depending on the language habits of the speakers. Thus only a generic 'e' is indicated, rather than its various shades; 'r' indicates an English r, rather than a trilled r; 'i' indicates either a long or short i. Several differences are apparent between the Latin alphabet pronunciation and the IPA pronunciation (indicated via sic): no 'r' is shown in the IPA forms of CHAR LEE, SHAR LEE, NOVEMBER, or YOU NEE FORM, but is shown in OO NEE FORM; the ŋ phoneme ('ng') in the IPA forms of TANG GO and YANG KEE is shown as an 'n'; the IPA form of GOLF implies it is pronounced 'gulf'; and the IPA form of BRAH VOH has both syllables stressed. These alternatives may indicate the wide variations in pronunciation that are acceptable.^[3] In human language, a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound. ...

History

The first internationally recognized alphabet was adopted by the ITU in 1927. The experience gained with that alphabet resulted in several changes being made in 1932 by the ITU. The resulting alphabet was adopted by the International Commission for Air Navigation, the predecessor of the ICAO, and was used in civil aviation until World War II. It continued to be used by the IMO until 1965: Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Amsterdam Baltimore Casablanca Denmark Edison Florida Gallipoli Havana Italia Jerusalem Kilogramme Liverpool Madagascar New_York Oslo Paris Quebec Roma Santiago Tripoli Upsala Valencia Washington Xanthippe Yokohama Zurich

Military alphabets before 1956

Royal Navy	Western Front slang or "signalese"	RAF phonetic alphabet		U.S. phonetic alphabet
1914–1918 (WWI)		1924–1942	1943–1956	1941–1956
Apples Butter Charlie Duff Edward Freddy George Harry Ink Johnnie King London Monkey Nuts Orange Pudding Queenie Robert Sugar Tommy Uncle Vinegar Willie Xerxes Yellow Zebra	Ack Beer Charlie Don Edward Freddie Gee Harry Ink Johnnie King London Emma Nuts Oranges Pip Queen Robert Esses Toc Uncle Vic William X-ray Yorker Zebra	Ace Beer Charlie Don Edward Freddie George Harry Ink Johnnie King London Monkey Nuts Orange Pip Queen Robert Sugar Toc Uncle Vic William X-ray Yorker Zebra	Able/Affirm Baker Charlie Dog Easy Fox George How Item/Interrogatory Jig/Johnny King Love Mike Nab/Negat Oboe Peter/Prep Queen Roger Sugar Tare Uncle Victor William X-ray Yoke Zebra	Able Baker Charlie Dog Easy Fox George How Item Jig King Love Mike Nan Oboe Peter Queen Roger Sugar Tare Uncle Victor William X-ray Yoke Zebra

In military use British and American armed forces each developed their phonetic alphabets prior to both forces adopting the NATO alphabet in 1956. British forces adopted the RAF phonetic alphabet which is similar to the phonetic alphabet used by the Royal Navy in World War I. The U.S. adopted the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet from 1941 to standardize systems amongst all branches of their armed forces. The U.S. alphabet became known as Able Baker after the words for A and B. The British adapted their RAF alphabet in 1943 to be almost identical to the U.S. one. Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... This article is about the navy of the United Kingdom. ... The RAF phonetic alphabet is not a phonetic alphabet in the sense in which that term is used in phonetics, i. ... The Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet was a radio alphabet developed in 1941 and was used by all branches of the United States military until the promulgation of the NATO phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo) in 1956, which replaced it. ... The RAF phonetic alphabet is not a phonetic alphabet in the sense in which that term is used in phonetics, i. ... This article is about the navy of the United Kingdom. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... The Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet was a radio alphabet developed in 1941 and was used by all branches of the United States military until the promulgation of the NATO phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo) in 1956, which replaced it. ...

After World War II, with many aircraft and ground personnel drawn from the allied armed forces, "Able Baker" continued to be used in civil aviation. But many sounds were unique to English, so an alternative "Ana Brazil" alphabet was used in Latin America. But the International Air Transport Association (IATA), recognizing the need for a single universal alphabet, presented a draft alphabet to the ICAO in 1947 which had sounds common to English, French, and Spanish. After further study and modification by each approving body, the revised alphabet was implemented November 1, 1951 in civil aviation (it may not have been adopted by any military): Latin America consists of the countries of South America and some of North America (including Central America and some the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken. ... “IATA” redirects here. ... is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Alfa Bravo Coca Delta Echo Foxtrot Golf Hotel India Juliett Kilo Lima Metro Nectar Oscar Papa Quebec Romeo Sierra Tango Union Victor Whisky Extra Yankee Zulu

Immediately, problems were found with this list—some users felt they were so severe that they reverted to the old "Able Baker" alphabet. To identify the deficiencies of the new alphabet, testing was conducted among speakers from 31 nations, principally by the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States. Confusion among words like Delta, Nectar, Victor, and Extra, or omission of other words under poor receiving conditions were the main problems. After much study, only five words representing the letters C, M, N, U, and X were replaced. The final version given in the table above was implemented by the ICAO on March 1, 1956,^[8] and was undoubtedly adopted shortly thereafter by the ITU, because it appears in the 1959 Radio Regulations as an established phonetic alphabet.^[9] Because the ITU governs all international radio communications, it was also adopted by all radio operators, whether military, civilian, or amateur (ARRL). It was finally adopted by the IMO in 1965. In 1947 the ITU adopted the compound number words (Nadazero Unaone, etc.), later adopted by the IMO in 1965.
is the 60th day of the year (61st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A car from 1956 Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Radio Regulations is an intergovernmental treaty text of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Geneva based specialised agency of the United Nations which coordinates and standardises the operation of telecommunication networks and services and advances the development of communications technology. ... The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) was founded in May 1914 by Hiram Percy Maxim. ...

Usage

The alphabet is used to spell out parts of a message containing letters and numbers to avoid confusion, because many letters sound similar, for instance "n" and "m" or "b" and "d". For instance the message "proceed to map grid DH98" could be transmitted as "proceed to map grid Delta-Hotel-Niner-Ait". Using "Delta" instead of "D" avoids confusion between "BH98" and "DH98".

In addition to the traditional military usage, civilian industry uses the alphabet to combat similar problems in the transmission of messages over telephone systems. For example, it is often used in the retail industry where customer or site details are spoken over the telephone (in order to authorize a credit agreement or confirming stock codes), although ad hoc coding is often used in that instance. It has found heavy usage in the information technology industry to accurately and quickly communicate serial/reference codes (which can be and are frequently extremely long) or other specialised information by voice.

Several letter codes and abbreviations using the phonetic alphabet have become well-known, such as Bravo Zulu (letter code BZ) for "well done",^[10] Checkpoint Charlie (Checkpoint C) in Berlin, and Zulu Time for Greenwich Mean Time or Coordinated Universal Time. During the Vietnam War, Viet Cong guerrillas and the group itself were referred to as VC, or Victor Charlie; the name "Charlie" has thus become synonymous with this force. Bravo Zulu is a naval signal, conveyed by flaghoist or voice radio, meaning Well Done; it has also passed into the spoken and written vocabulary. ... Allied Checkpoint Charlie. ... This article is about the capital of Germany. ... UTC also stands for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Coordinated Universal Time or UTC, also sometimes referred to as Zulu time, the basis for civil time, differs by an integral number of seconds from atomic time and a fractional number of seconds from UT1. ... GMT redirects here. ... UTC redirects here. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... A Viet Cong soldier, heavily guarded, awaits interrogation following capture in the attacks on Saigon during the festive Tet holiday period of 1968. ...

The phonetic alphabet is frequently used in popular culture to evoke a military environment or situation. For example, in the movie Meet the Parents, Robert de Niro plays a former CIA operative who repeatedly utters phrases using the phonetic alphabet. Other notable examples of usage include the British television series Juliet Bravo which wasn't the character's name but her callsign, The Bill and Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Identity which repeatedly uses the system - the phrase Cain is for Charlie and Delta is for Cain is repeated, always italicized, to symbolize the messages relayed to the main character during the Vietnam War. Meet the Parents is a 2000 comedy film starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller. ... Robert Mario De Niro, Jr. ... The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an American intelligence agency, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ... Juliet Bravo was a British television series which ran between 1980 and 1985. ... This article is about the British TV series. ... Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 New York City â€“ March 12, 2001 Naples, Florida) was an American author of 21 thriller novels. ... For the 1988 film starring Richard Chamberlain, see The Bourne Identity (1988 film). ...

Slang uses include euphemisms for swear words, such as Whiskey Tango Foxtrot ("What the fuck?")^[11], Charlie Foxtrot (American military slang referring to any sort of mass confusion as a "cluster fuck" or "completely fucked"), Foxtrot Uniform ("Fuck up")^[12], and Foxtrot Oscar ("Fuck off").^[13] Profanity is a word choice or usage which its audience considers to be offensive. ... cluster fuck (n. ... Fuck off is an expletive derived from fuck, meaning go away. A phrase of British origin, it has since entered into common usage around the globe; an American counterpart derived from it is go fuck yourself. In some countries where the locals only exposure to English has been around people...

Variants

Aviation

• "Delta" is replaced by "Dixie" or "David" at airports that have a majority of Delta Air Lines flights, such as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in order to avoid confusion because "Delta" is also Delta's callsign.
• "Foxtrot" is commonly abbreviated to "Fox" at North American airports and some European ones.

Delta Air Lines, Inc. ... Atlanta Airport redirects here. ...

Amateur radio

Amateur radio and citizens' band radio operators will occasionally use "Italy" instead of "India", "Kilowatt" instead of simply "Kilo", "Radio" instead of "Romeo", "Yokohama" instead of "Yankee" and "Zanzibar" instead of "Zulu". Amateur radio station with modern solid-state transceiver featuring LCD and DSP capabilities Amateur radio, often called ham radio, is both a hobby and a service that uses various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with other radio amateurs for public service, recreation and self-training. ... A typical CB base station. ...

Other

Many unofficial phonetic alphabets are in use that are not based on a standard, but are based on words the transmitter can easily remember. Often, such ad-hoc phonetic alphabets are first name alphabets based on (mostly) men's names, such as Alan Bobby Charlie David Edward Frederick George Howard Isaac James Kevin Larry Michael Nicholas Oscar Peter Quincy Robert Stephen Trevor Ulysses Vincent William Xavier Yaakov Zebedee, or on a mixture of names and other easily recognizable (and locally understandable) proper nouns, such as U.S. states, local cities and towns, etc. One documented example of this is the LAPD phonetic alphabet. The First Name Alphabet is a widely used method of spelling out words letter by letter in the United States in an effort to clarify which word has been said. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Atlas  US Government Portal      A U.S. state is any one of the fifty subnational entities of... The LAPD phonetic alphabet is not a phonetic alphabet in the sense in which that term is used in phonetics, i. ...

Additions in other languages

Certain languages' standard alphabets have letters, or letters with diacritics e.g. umlauts, that do not exist in the English alphabet. Each of their countries has had its own radiotelephonic alphabet containing words for these letters decades before the ICAO had their alphabet. The umlaut mark (or simply umlaut) and the trema or diaeresis mark (or simply diaeresis) are two diacritics consisting of a pair of dots placed over a letter. ...

German

To the above NATO series has been added Ärger ("anger") for <Ä>, Öse ("grommet") for <Ö>, and Übel ("evil") for <Ü>. These additions are not in the ICAO alphabet and are used only in the German-speaking world. Three other special words commonly used in German radiotelephonic alphabets were not added: one for <Ch>, one for <Sch>, and one for <ß>, which is instead encoded as <s><s>. Ä, or ä, is a character which represents either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter A with umlaut or diaeresis. ... Ö, or ö, is a character used in several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter O with umlaut or diaeresis. ... Ãœ, or ü, is a character which represents either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter U with umlaut or diaeresis. ... The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an agency of the United Nations, develops the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth. ... ß as the combination of Å¿s on a Pirna street sign (Waldstraße) This article is about the letter ß in the German alphabet. ...

Danish

Denmark is also a member of NATO, and according to Per K. Nielsen, its military has added Ægir for <Æ>, Ødis for <Ø>, and Åse for <Å>, which in its alphabet are separate letters that follow <Z>. This article is about a mythological figure. ... For Æ, the Irish writer, see George William Russell. ... // For the similarly named Danish land, see Ø, Denmark. ... The letter Ã… represents various o sounds in the Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, North Frisian, Walloon, Chamorro and Istro-Romanian language alphabets. ...

Norwegian

The Norwegian phonetic alphabet uses Ærlig ("honest") for <Æ>, Østen ("the East") for <Ø>, and Åse (<female first name>) for <Å>.

Spanish

In Spain and Latin America, Ñandu ("rhea") is used for <Ñ>. Latin America consists of the countries of South America and some of North America (including Central America and some the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken. ... Species R. americana R. pennata The Rhea, also known as ñandú (pronounced ) in Spanish, or ema in Portuguese, is a large flightless ratite bird native to South America. ...

Recordings

References

See also

• International maritime signal flags
• List of military time zones
• Procedure word

The system of international maritime signal flags is a way of representing individual letters of the alphabet in signals to or from ships. ... Procedure words or prowords are words or phrases limited to radio telephone procedure used to facilitate communication by conveying information in a condensed standard form. ...

External links

• CodeThatWord - Web based phonic code as-you-type
• Most comprehensive collection of phonetic alphabets
• Public ICAO site
• Spoken NATO phonetic alphabet - Click the letters to play the words
• Google Gadgets:
  • NATO phonetic alphabet Google Gadget cheat sheet
  • Spell It Out! (Alpha Bravo Charlie)