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.
International
Adoption
After this spelling alphabet was developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) (see history below) it was adopted by many other international and national organizations, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), 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).
NATO
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.
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, especially when they have different 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 or the version used by the British armed forces and emergency services, 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
| Letter | Code word | Pronunciation | IPA from ICAO (see below) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Alfa (ICAO, ITU, IMO, FAA) Alpha (ANSI) | AL FAH | ˈælfɑ |
| B | Bravo | BRAH VOH | ˈbrɑːˈvo |
| C | Charlie | CHAR LEE or SHAR LEE | ˈtʃɑːli or ˈʃɑːli |
| D | Delta | DELL TAH | ˈdeltɑ |
| E | Echo | ECK OH | ˈeko |
| F | Foxtrot | FOKS TROT | ˈfɔkstrɔt |
| G | Golf | GOLF | gʌlf |
| H | Hotel | HO TELL (ICAO) HOH TELL (ITU, IMO, FAA) | hoːˈtel |
| I | India | IN DEE AH | ˈindiˑɑ |
| J | Juliett (ICAO, ITU, IMO, FAA) Juliet (ANSI) | JEW LEE ETT | ˈdʒuːliˑˈet |
| K | Kilo | KEY LOH | ˈkiːlo |
| L | Lima | LEE MAH | ˈliːmɑ |
| M | Mike | MIKE | mɑik |
| N | November | NO VEM BER | noˈvembə |
| O | Oscar | OSS CAH | ˈɔskɑ |
| P | Papa | PAH PAH | pəˈpɑ |
| Q | Quebec | KEH BECK | keˈbek |
| R | Romeo | ROW ME OH | ˈroːmiˑo |
| S | Sierra | SEE AIR RAH (ICAO, ITU, IMO) SEE AIR AH (FAA) | siˈerɑ |
| T | Tango | TANG GO | ˈtængo [sic] |
| U | Uniform | YOU NEE FORM or OO NEE FORM | ˈjuːnifɔːm or ˈuːnifɔrm [sic] |
| V | Victor | VIK TAH | ˈviktɑ |
| W | Whiskey | WISS KEY | ˈwiski |
| X | X-ray or Xray | ECKS RAY (ICAO, ITU) ECKS RAY (IMO, FAA) | ˈeksˈrei |
| Y | Yankee | YANG KEY | ˈjænki [sic] |
| Z | Zulu | ZOO LOO | ˈzuːluː |
Digits
| Digit | Code word | Pronunciation | IPA from ICAO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Zero (FAA) Nadazero (ITU, IMO) | ZE RO (ICAO, FAA) NAH-DAH-ZAY-ROH (ITU, IMO) | — |
| 1 | One (FAA) Unaone (ITU, IMO) | WUN (ICAO, FAA) OO-NAH-WUN (ITU, IMO) | — |
| 2 | Two (FAA) Bissotwo (ITU, IMO) | TOO (ICAO, FAA) BEES-SOH-TOO (ITU, IMO) | — |
| 3 | Three (FAA) Terrathree (ITU, IMO) | TREE (ICAO, FAA) TAY-RAH-TREE (ITU, IMO) | — |
| 4 | Four (FAA) Kartefour (ITU, IMO) | FOW ER (ICAO, FAA) KAR-TAY-FOWER (ITU, IMO) | — |
| 5 | Five (FAA) Pantafive (ITU, IMO) | FIFE (ICAO, FAA) PAN-TAH-FIVE (ITU, IMO) | — |
| 6 | Six (FAA) Soxisix (ITU, IMO) | SIX (ICAO, FAA) SOK-SEE-SIX (ITU, IMO) | — |
| 7 | Seven (FAA) Setteseven (ITU, IMO) | SEV EN (ICAO, FAA) SAY-TAY-SEVEN (ITU, IMO) | — |
| 8 | Eight (FAA) Oktoeight (ITU, IMO) | AIT (ICAO, FAA) OK-TOH-AIT (ITU, IMO) | — |
| 9 | Nine (FAA) Novenine (ITU, IMO) (No 'r' in spellings) | NIN ER (ICAO, FAA) NO-VAY-NINER (ITU, IMO) | — |
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), but not always pronounced the same.[3][4][5][6][7]
Only the ICAO prescribes any kind of IPA pronunciation (and then only for letters, not numbers).[3] Several of the pronunciations indicated do not occur in current General American English or British Received Pronunciation (ˈʃɑːli, gʌlf, ˈroːmiˑo, ˈuːnifɔrm) or are simplified representations of these (ˈtængo, ˈjænki). The pronunciations indicated are broad transcriptions because many different pronunciations of each code word are allowed in actual use, 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. Both the IPA and Latin alphabet pronuncations were developed by the ICAO before 1956 with input from the governments of both the United States and United Kingdom,[8] so the pronunciations of both General American English and British Received Pronunciation are evident, especially in the rhotic and non-rhotic accents. The Latin alphabet version usually has a rhotic accent ('r' always pronounced), as in CHAR LEE, SHAR LEE, NO VEM BER, YOU NEE FORM, and OO NEE FORM, whereas the IPA version usually has a non-rhotic accent ('r' pronounced only before a vowel), as in ˈtʃɑːli, ˈʃɑːli, noˈvembə, and ˈjuːnifɔːm. Exceptions are OSS CAH and ˈuːnifɔrm. The IPA form of Golf implies it is pronounced gulf, which does occur, but not in either General American English or British Received Pronunciation. The Latin alphabet and IPA forms of Bravo have different syllable stresses. The ŋ phoneme ('ng') in the IPA forms of Tango and Yankee is shown as an 'n' and marked [sic]. Furthermore, the pronunciation prescribed for "whiskey" agrees with many (but by no means all) English dialects, in which the "wh-" is simplified into the non-fricative "w-" sound.
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.
Amateur radio
Amateur radio operators will occasionally use "Italy" instead of "India", "Kilowatt" instead of simply "Kilo", "Norway" instead of "November", "Radio" instead of "Romeo", "Yokohama" instead of "Yankee" and "Zanzibar" or "Zebra" instead of "Zulu".
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.
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1 comment:
Very informative post.Thanks for sharing.
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