NATO phonetic alphabet

From Open Encyclopedia

This phonetic alphabet differs from the linguistics term phonetic alphabet, which refers to a set of symbols which describe the pronunciation of words. The century older International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is often confused with the NATO phonetic alphabet owing to their similar names. Nevertheless, phonetic alphabet has acquired the alternate meaning of a spelling alphabet through long use, including its official use with that meaning by national and international agencies.

Image:FAA Phonetic and Morse Chart.gif

The NATO phonetic alphabet is a common name for the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet which assigns code words to the letters of the English alphabet 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. 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. 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 normal English numeric words (Zero, One), except for 3, 5, and 9, which are pronounced "tree", "fife", and "niner", whereas the IMO uses compound numeric words (Nadazero, Unaone).

The alphabet's common name 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 spelt 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 [1]. However, ATP-1 is marked NATO Confidential (or the lower NATO Restricted) so is not publicly available. Although a NATO unclassified version of the document is provided to foreign, even hostile, militaries, even they are not allowed to make it publicly available.

1 Alphabet and pronunciation
2 History
3 Usage
4 Additions in German, Danish and Norwegian
5 Variants
6 Older phonetic alphabets
7 Phonetic alphabet in popular culture
8 References
9 See also
10 External links

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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.

Letter	Code word	Pronunciation	ICAO (official) IPA (unofficial)
A	Alfa (ICAO, ITU, IMO, FAA) Alpha (ANSI)	AL FAH	'ælfa (ICAO) ˈælfə (IPA)
B	Bravo	BRAH VOH	'bra:'vo (ICAO) ˈbɹɑvoʊ (IPA)
C	Charlie	CHAR LEE or SHAR LEE	'tʃa:li (ICAO) ˈtʃɑɹliː (IPA) or 'ʃa:li (ICAO) ˈʃɑɹliː (IPA)
D	Delta	DELL TAH	'delta (ICAO) ˈdɛltɑ (IPA)
E	Echo	ECK OH	'eko (ICAO) ˈɛkoʊ (IPA)
F	Foxtrot	FOKS TROT	'fBkstrBt (ICAO) ˈfɔːkstɹɔːt (IPA)
G	Golf	GOLF	gulf (ICAO) gɔːlf (IPA)
H	Hotel	HO TELL (ICAO) HOH TELL (ITU, IMO, FAA)	ho:'tel (ICAO) hoʊ.ˈtɛl (IPA)
I	India	IN DEE AH	'indi·a (ICAO) ˈɪndiː.ˌə (IPA)
J	Juliett (ICAO, ITU, IMO, FAA) Juliet (ANSI)	JEW LEE ETT	'd_u:li·et (ICAO) ˈdʒuːliː.ˌɛt (IPA)
K	Kilo	KEY LOH	'ki:lo (ICAO) ˈkiːloʊ (IPA)
L	Lima	LEE MAH	'li:ma (ICAO) ˈliːmə (IPA)
M	Mike	MIKE	maik (ICAO) maɪk (IPA)
N	November	NO VEM BER	no'vembe (ICAO) noʊ.ˈvɛmˌbɝ (IPA)
O	Oscar	OSS CAH	'Bska (ICAO) ˈɔːskə (IPA)
P	Papa	PAH PAH	pe'pa (ICAO) pɑ.ˈpɑ (IPA)
Q	Quebec	KEH BECK	ke'bek (ICAO) kɛ.ˈbɛk (IPA)
R	Romeo	ROW ME OH	'ro:mi·o (ICAO) ˈɹoʊmiː.ˌoʊ (IPA)
S	Sierra	SEE AIR RAH (ICAO, ITU, IMO) SEE AIR AH (FAA)	si'era (ICAO) siː.ˈɛˌɹə (IPA)
T	Tango	TANG GO	't ængo (ICAO) ˈtæŋgoʊ (IPA)
U	Uniform	YOU NEE FORM or OO NEE FORM	'ju:nifB:m (sic) (ICAO) ˈjuːniː.ˌfɔɹm (IPA) or 'u:nifB:rm (ICAO) ˈuːniː.ˌfɔɹm (IPA)
V	Victor	VIK TAH	'vikta (ICAO) ˈvɪktə (IPA)
W	Whiskey	WISS KEY	'wiski (ICAO) ˈwɪskiː (IPA)
X	X-ray	ECKS RAY (ICAO, ITU) ECKS RAY (IMO, FAA)	'eks'rei (ICAO) ˈɛksɹeɪ (IPA)
Y	Yankee	YANG KEY	'j ænki (ICAO) ˈjæŋkiː (IPA)
Z	Zulu	ZOO LOO	'zu:lu: (ICAO) ˈzuːluː (IPA)
0	Zero (FAA) Nadazero (ITU, IMO)	ZE RO (ICAO, FAA) NAH-DAH-ZAY-ROH (ITU, IMO)	ˈziːɹoʊ (IPA)
1	One (FAA) Unaone (ITU, IMO)	WUN (ICAO, FAA) OO-NAH-WUN (ITU, IMO)	wʌn (IPA)
2	Two (FAA) Bissotwo (ITU, IMO)	TOO (ICAO, FAA) BEES-SOH-TOO (ITU, IMO)	tuː (IPA)
3	Three (FAA) Terrathree (ITU, IMO)	TREE (ICAO, FAA) TAY-RAH-TREE (ITU, IMO)	tɹiː (IPA)
4	Four (FAA) Kartefour (ITU, IMO)	FOW ER (ICAO, FAA) KAR-TAY-FOWER (ITU, IMO)	fɔɹ (IPA)
5	Five (FAA) Pantafive (ITU, IMO)	FIFE (ICAO, FAA) PAN-TAH-FIVE (ITU, IMO)	faɪf (IPA)
6	Six (FAA) Soxisix (ITU, IMO)	SIX (ICAO, FAA) SOK-SEE-SIX (ITU, IMO)	sɪks (IPA)
7	Seven (FAA) Setteseven (ITU, IMO)	SEV EN (ICAO, FAA) SAY-TAY-SEVEN (ITU, IMO)	ˈsɛvən (IPA)
8	Eight (FAA) Oktoeight (ITU, IMO)	AIT (ICAO, FAA) OK-TOH-AIT (ITU, IMO)	eɪt (IPA)
9	Nine (FAA) Novenine (ITU, IMO) No 'r' in spellings	NIN ER (ICAO, FAA) NO-VAY-NINER (ITU, IMO)	ˈnaɪnɝ (IPA)

Unless otherwise specified, 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).

Only the ICAO prescribes any kind of IPA pronunciation (and then only for letters, not numbers), but its official version (which it labels the "International Phonetic Convention") does not use any IPA symbol except that for 'sh' (ʃ). For other IPA symbols it substitutes special Latin letters: 'B' for ɔ (open o, hex 254), a for ə (schwa, inverted e, hex 259), '_' for ʒ (ezh, hex 292), and 'r' for ɹ (inverted r, hex 279). The version labeled (IPA) here is not officially sanctioned and may contain errors.

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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:

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

During World War II (specifically in 1941), the requirements of joint Allied operations led to the development of the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet:

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

Several RAF phonetic alphabets were also used. After the war, 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:

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, and was undoubtedly adopted shortly thereafter by the ITU, because it appears in the 1959 Radio Regulations as an established phonetic alphabet. 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) later adopted by the IMO in 1965.

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Usage

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. But it is only required internationally, not 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 spelt with an f because many European languages, including Spanish, do not spell that phoneme with a ph—native speakers of those languages may pronounce ph as if it were a p, ignoring the h—the English word alpha is spelt alfa in most European languages. Juliett is spelt with a tt for the benefit of native French speakers because they will treat a single t as silent—the English word Juliet is Juliette in French, but the ICAO did not adopt the final e because it might be misunderstood by native Spanish speakers as indicative of a final syllable teh. In English versions of the alphabet, like that from ANSI, one or both may revert to their standard English spelling.

The alphabet is used to spell out parts of a message or call sign that are critical or otherwise hard to recognize during voice communication. For instance the message "proceed to map grid DH98" could be transmitted as "proceed to map grid Delta-Hotel-Niner-Eight" and a C-130 Hercules plane directly ahead might be described as a "Charlie One Three Zero in your twelve o'clock". Several letter codes and abbreviations using the phonetic alphabet have become well-known, such as Bravo Zulu (letter code BZ) for "well done" [2], Checkpoint Charlie (Checkpoint C) in Berlin, and Zulu for Greenwich Mean Time or Coordinated Universal Time. In SWAT units, Tango is used for terrorists, Sierra for a Sniper etc.

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Additions in German, Danish and Norwegian

The German-speaking peoples are accustomed to writing some vowels in their language with seemingly inseparable umlauts. Each of their countries has had its own radiotelephonic alphabet for decades before the ICAO had their alphabet and they are loathe to do without words for these vowels. 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, however, and are generally unknown outside the German-speaking world. Three other special words commonly used in their radiotelephonic alphabets were not added: one for <Ch>, one for <Sch>, and one for <ß>.

Denmark is also a member of NATO, and according to Gwillim Law, its military has added Ægir for <Æ>, Ødis for <Ø>, and Åse for <Å>, which in its alphabet are separate letters that follow <Z>. The Norwegian phonetic alphabet uses Ærling for <Æ>, Østen for <Ø>, and Åse for <Å>.

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Variants

At some United States airports, the use of Delta for the letter D is avoided because it is also the callsign for Delta Air Lines. "Dixie" seems to be the most common substitute.

Foxtrot may be abbreviated as Fox (FOKS) at United States airports.

In British police work the use of India has been replaced by "Indigo".

In the Philippines, the word Hawk is sometimes used for the letter H, rather than Hotel.

In Indonesia, the word "Lima" for letter L is seldom used since the word "lima" means number five (5) in Bahasa Indonesia. Instead, "London" is most often used for letter L.

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 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. The German alphabet, for instance, has a semi-official phonetic alphabet, which was largely popularised by the German version of the TV gameshow Wheel of Fortune.

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Older phonetic alphabets

In addition to the alphabets referred to above, numerous other phonetic alphabets have been used in the past.

World War I western front trench slang: 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
This appears to be the origin of the RAF slang phrases such as ack emma for morning, pip emma for afternoon and ack-ack for anti-aircraft. Ack Emma was also used for 'Air Mechanic' in the Royal Flying Corps (1914-18).

British Royal Navy during World War I: 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

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Phonetic alphabet in popular culture

Two television series (and a comic book adaptation by Charlton comics) were named "Adam-12", the radio call sign for the patrol car the two main characters were assigned to. The theme song to the original series was prefaced with simulated radio traffic which began with the call "One Adam Twelve".

The NATO phonetic alphabet is referred to repeatedly in Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Identity. The phrase Cain is for Charlie and Delta is for Cain is repeated, always italicised, to symbolise the messages relayed to the main character during the Vietnam war.

The nickname "Charlie" used by US servicemen in the Vietnam War is derived from "Victor Charlie", the NATO phoneticism for the initials of the Viet Cong, the armed insurgents in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam).

The name of sports car manufacturer Alfa Romeo is sometimes believed to represent the initials AR in this system, although this is not supported by the company's official history.

UTC (aka Greenwich Mean Time) is sometimes referred to as "Zulu" time, after the Z letter designation given to the GMT time zone.

The rock band Wilco's 2002 album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, includes recordings of a numbers station speaking these words, believed to be a transmission of an alphanumeric cipher using this phonetic alphabet.

The Bloodhound Gang has a song entitled Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo on their album Hefty Fine, refering to the word "fuck".

In the film "Super Troopers" license plates are read using a made up phonetic alphabet containing words like "Eunuch" and "Peanut."

The call sign "Sierra Oscar" is frequently heard in the British TV serial The Bill - SO being the abbreviation for Scotland Yard's Specialist Operations units. License plates, eg. Lima 407 Golf Uniform Charlie, are also read using said alphabet.

The call sign "Three William Fifty Six" is frequently heard in the American movie series Lethal Weapon.

In the 1991 film Hot Shots!, the alphabet is parodied in such phrases as "Yankee Doodle Floppy Disk, this is Foxtrot Zulu Milkshake," "Alpha Velveeta Knuckle Underwear, you are cleared for take-off," and "Sphincter Mucus Layer Ringworm, roger."

In The Simpsons, episode "Separate Vocations", the license plate "EX-CON" was spelled in a similar parody as "Eggplant Xerxes Crybaby Overbite Narwhal".

Adam Curry begins every episode of his Daily Source Code podcast with "Delta Sierra Charlie" and the episode number.

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References

L.J. Rose, "Aviation's ABC: The development of the ICAO spelling alphabet", ICAO Bulletin 11/2 (1956) 12-14
Aeronautical Telecommunications: Annex 10 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Volume II, Chapter 5
International Telecommunication Union, "Appendix 16: Phonetic Alphabet and Figure Code", Radio Regulations (Geneva, 1959) 430-431
National Imagery and Mapping Agency Pub. 102, International Code of Signals for Visual, Sound and Radio Communications, United States Edition, 1969 Edition (Revised 2003), Chapter 1, pages 18-19, 148.

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