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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 {Link without Title} . 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. 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. 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 :
During World War II (specifically in 1941), the requirements of joint Allied operations led to the development of the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet :
Several RAF Phonetic Alphabet s 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 :
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. 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 (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 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 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 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. Ham Radio and Citizens' Band 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. State s, 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.
PHONETIC ALPHABET IN POPULAR CULTURE
REFERENCES
In the UK the television series Juliet Bravo wasn't the charachters name but her callsign. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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