NATO phonetic alphabet

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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.

FAA radiotelephony phonetic alphabet and Morse code chart.

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.[International Code of Signals] (2.7MB pdf file), United States Edition, 1969 Edition (Revised 2003), Chapter 1, pages 18-19, 148. 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, with some alternate pronunciations), 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.[Globalization and Sea Power] 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.

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	IPA from ICAO
A	Alfa (ICAO, ITU, IMO, FAA) Alpha (ANSI)	AL FAH
B	Bravo	BRAH VOH	sic)
C	Charlie	CHAR LEE  or SHAR LEE	sic)  or ˈʃɑːli (sic)
D	Delta	DELL TAH
E	Echo	ECK OH
F	Foxtrot	FOKS TROT
G	Golf	GOLF	sic)
H	Hotel	HO TELL (ICAO) HOH TELL (ITU, IMO, FAA)
I	India	IN DEE AH
J	Juliett (ICAO, ITU, IMO, FAA) Juliet (ANSI)	JEW LEE ETT
K	Kilo	KEY LOH
L	Lima	LEE MAH
M	Mike	MIKE
N	November	NO VEM BER	sic)
O	Oscar	OSS CAH
P	Papa	PAH PAH
Q	Quebec	KEH BECK
R	Romeo	ROW ME OH
S	Sierra	SEE AIR RAH (ICAO, ITU, IMO) SEE AIR AH (FAA)
T	Tango	TANG GO	sic)
U	Uniform	YOU NEE FORM  or OO NEE FORM	sic)  or ˈuːnifɔrm
V	Victor	VIK TAH
W	Whiskey	WISS KEY
X	X-ray	ECKS RAY (ICAO, ITU) ECKS RAY (IMO, FAA)
Y	Yankee	YANG KEY	sic)
Z	Zulu	ZOO LOO
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)	—

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).Aeronautical Telecommunications: Annex 10 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Volume II, Chapter 5.[ITU Phonetic Alphabet and Figure Code][ICAO Phonetics by the FAA] [American National Standard T1.523-2001, Telecom Glossary 2000][ICAO phonetic alphabet by Canada]

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 is 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 are 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.

The pronunciation of the number nine was changed to niner to avoid confusion with the German word for no, 'nein'.

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,L.J. Rose, "Aviation's ABC: The development of the ICAO spelling alphabet", ICAO Bulletin 11/2 (1956) 12-14. and was undoubtedly adopted shortly thereafter by the ITU, because it appears in the 1959 Radio Regulations as an established phonetic alphabet.International Telecommunication Union, "Appendix 16: Phonetic Alphabet and Figure Code", Radio Regulations (Geneva, 1959) 430-431. 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.

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 spelled 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",[Where does the term "Bravo Zulu" originate?] 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.

Additions in German, Danish and Norwegian

The German-speaking peoples are accustomed to writing some vowels in their language with umlauts. Each of their countries has had [its own radiotelephonic alphabet] containing words for these vowels decades before the ICAO had their alphabet. 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 , one for , 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 . The Norwegian phonetic alphabet uses Ærlig for <Æ>, Østen for <Ø>, and Åse for <Å>.

Variants

At several 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" is commonly abbreviated to "Fox" (FOKS) at North American airports.

Amateur radio and Citizens' band radio operators will occasionally use Kilowatt in lieu of simply Kilo.

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.

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

Phonetic alphabet in popular culture

Television

• 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".
• In the US television series "CHiPs", the call sign for the main characters is "Seven Mary Three" or "Seven Mary Four", depending on the person being called. In this instance, "Mary" refers to "Motorcycle".
• The call sign "Sierra Oscar" is frequently heard in the British TV serial The Bill — SO being the fictional abbreviation for the BOCU (Borough Operational Command Unit) which Sun Hill Police station is in. In one episode a character tells another to 'Foxtrot Oscar' (for FO). This usage was later picked up by the Sun newspaper.
• In The Simpsons, episode "Separate Vocations", the license plate "EX-CON" was spelled in a similar parody as "Eggplant Xerxes Crybaby Overbite Narwhal".
• In the UK television series Juliet Bravo, that wasn't the character's name but her callsign.
• In the UK television series The Young Ones, in the episode Cash, when Neil gets interviewed by the police chief, he is told that you need to say "CCCCHHHHHHH" when talking into your radio, and is given the example, "Charlie, Tango, Teakettle, Barbeque, CCCCCHHHHHH!".
• In the television series Stargate SG-1, the team is occasionally referred to as "Sierra Golf One" and Stargate Command as "Sierra Golf Charlie".
• The Australian TV series The Flying Doctors had radio communication as a large part of their plot. Most notably between the plane "Mike Sierra Foxtrot" and the base "Victor Charlie Charlie".
• In the US television series "24", episode of Day 5 (season 5), Jack Bauer is undercover with a group of terrorists. CTU orders him to give the terrorists the code of "Alpha Kilo Charlie" in order to activate a nerve gas cannister at a Los Angeles area shopping mall which would allow him to keep his cover intact. He refuses the order, risking his cover, and instead utters the incorrect code of "Echo Bravo Charlie".

Music

• The song La reponse of the German rock band Ton Steine Scherben starts with the words: Ici: Liverpool Italia Edison Baltimore Edison (Liebe means love in German).
• 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.
• The Danish band Kliché made the song "Bravo Charlie" almost entirely consisting of words from the NATO phonetic alphabet. It was included on the album Okay Okay Boys (1982) and later released as a single in 1983 to become a local hit.
• Tom Cochrane named his 1998 album "X-ray Sierra" (for XS).
• The band Seven Mary Three took their name from the call sign frequently used in the TV show Chips with Mary used for motorcycle.

Movies

• In the film "Super Troopers" license plates are read using a made up phonetic alphabet containing words like "Eunuch" and "Peanut."
• 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."
• "Foxtrot X-ray" has occasionally been used as an abbreviation for special effects (read: FX), mainly around the release of the movies by the same name.
• Robert de Niro speaks in the phonetic alphabet in Meet the Parents.
• Numerous letters are used as callsigns in Black Hawk Down.
• "Charlie Dog" was an animated cartoon fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes series of cartoons, created by Chuck Jones.

Military

• 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).
• UTC (aka Greenwich Mean Time) is sometimes referred to as "Zulu" time, after the Z letter designation given to the GMT time zone.
• Checkpoint Charlie was a crossing point between East and West Berlin while the city was divided by the Berlin Wall (1961–1989). There were Checkpoints Alpha and Bravo in other parts of Germany, but Checkpoint Charlie became an icon of the Cold War.
• WTF, itself a euphemism for "What the Fuck?", is sometimes humorously or obliquely uttered or written as Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?.
• The term "Charlie Foxtrot" is used as an abbreviation for CF in American Military slang to refer to a "cluster fuck" or "completely fucked", a blanket term for any sort of mass confusion or other SNAFU. "We were doing fine until Charlie danced the Foxtrot in the form of a grenade going off."

Miscellaneous

• 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 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.
• In the Half-Life computer game, after the military has taken over the Black Mesa research facility P.A. system, the announcer mentions the phonetic words: Kilo, India, Lima, Hotel, Sierra, Mike, and Bravo.
• In , the level "Foxtrot uniform" might be a reference to the phonetic alphabet F and U.
• The Combine in the Half-Life 2 computer game use a modified phonetic alphabet, with such codes as "apex", "ion", "jet", "mace", "nova", "payback", "flatline", "sundown", and "ripcord".
• Adam Curry begins every episode of his Daily Source Code podcast with "Delta Sierra Charlie" and the episode number.
• The tents and stages of the Lowlands festival in the Netherlands, officially called A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise, are named after these codes. The stages and tents for the 'flight 13' in the year 2005 were: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Echo, Grolsch, Texelse Boys, India and Lima. Sponsors have diluted the naming system somewhat: Delta was Dommelsch (a beer brewer from the Netherlands) instead. When Dommelsch stopped sponsoring, Golf was named Grolsch (another brewer) and the 'D' was dropped. Hotel was named Higher Ground and named Texelse boys in 2005. Kilo was last used in 2001.
• In the computer game , there are a number of Marine fireteams, such as Fierteam Charlie. Cortana mentions "Combat teams Alpha through Sierra" at one point.
• In Tintin comic series, a pair of detectives Thomson and Thompson describe themselves with phonetic alphabets. For example " I am Thompson, with a P, as in Psychology. He is Thomson without a P as in Sahara"

References