NATO phonetic alphabet: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:47, 15 August 2003

Revision as of 09:05, 15 August 2003

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The '''[[NATO]] phonetic alphabet''' was developed in the [[1950s]] to be intelligible (and pronounceable) to all [[NATO]] allies in the heat of battle. It replaced other phonetic alphabets, for example the US military [[Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet]] ("able baker") and several versions of [[RAF phonetic alphabet]]s. It is sometimes inappropriately referred to as ''[[International Phonetic Alphabet]]'', which is actually the official name of an alphabet used in linguistics created in the late nineteeth century. Since it is mainly English words perhaps calling it the Nato alphabet is a misnomer. Also it can be understood (and possibly used) by non-NATO countries.

The NATO phonetic alphabet is now widely used in business and telecommunications in Europe and North America, and has been approved by [[International Civil Aviation Organization|ICAO]] for use in international civil aviation. It has been adopted by the [[International Telegraphers Union]] (ITU), after which it is named by many radio operators. Although it consists of English words, its letter codewords can easily be recognised by speakers of languages other than English.

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 Thirty in your twelve o'clock".

The [[NATO]] phonetic alphabet is as follows:

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