Spelling alphabet

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Spelling alphabet

A spelling alphabet, radio alphabet, or telephone alphabet is a set of words which are used to stand for the letters of an alphabetAlphabet

An alphabet is a complete standardized set of letters — basic written symbols — each of which roughly repres...
. Each word in the spelling alphabet typically replaces the name of the letter with which it starts. It is used to spell out words when speaking to someone not able to see the speaker, meaning there are no visual cues which assist the listener (the McGurk effectMcGurk effect

The McGurk effect is a perceptual phenomenon which demonstrates an interaction between hearing and vision in speech percepti...
). Giving one's name over the telephoneTelephone

The telephone or phone is a telecommunications device which is used to transmit and receive sound across distance....
is a common scenario where a spelling alphabet is often used. Spelling alphabets are often called phonetic alphabets. However, phonetic transcriptionPhonetic transcription

Phonetic transcription is the visual system of symbolization of the sounds occurring in spoken human language....
systems such as the International Phonetic AlphabetInternational Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists....
are designed to record detailed information about the sounds of human speech. As written representations of spoken sounds, they are utterly different from spelling alphabets, which are spoken representations of written symbols.

Voice procedure

Spelling alphabets are especially useful when speaking in a noisy environment when clarity and promptness of communication is essential, for example during two-way radioTwo-way radio

A two-way radio is simply a radio that can both transmit and receive....
communication between an aircraft pilot and air traffic controlAir traffic control

Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air....
, or in military operations. Whereas the names of many letters sound alike, the set of replacement words can be selected to be as distinct from each other as possible, to minimise the likelihood of ambiguity or mistaking one letter for another. For example, if a burst of staticNoise (radio)

Radio noise is interference with radio transmissions caused either by thermal noise from receiver input circuits or by radia...
cuts off the start of an English-languageEnglish language

English is a widely distributed language that originated in England but is now the primary language in numerous countries....
utterance of the letter J, it may be mistaken for A or K. In the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet (or NATO phonetic alphabetNATO phonetic alphabet Overview

The NATO phonetic alphabet, more formally the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet, is the most widely used ...
), the sequence J-A-K would be pronounced Juliett-Alpha-Kilo. Some voice procedure standards require numberNumber

A number is an abstract entity that represents a count or measurement....
s to be spelled out digitFacts About Numerical digit

In mathematics and computer science, a numerical digit is a symbol used in numerals, to represent numbers, in positional num...
by digit; some spelling alphabets replace confusable digit names with more distinct alternatives: for example, the NATO alphabet has "niner" for 9 to distinguish it better from 5 and the German word "nein".

History

On the Western FrontWestern Front Summary

Western Front was a term used during the First and Second World Wars to describe the "contested armed frontier" between land...
of the First World War British ArmyBritish Army

The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces....
signallerSignaller Summary

In the armed forces, a signaller is a soldier or seaman in a Corps or trade responsible for military communications and rela...
s developed "signalese", a way of spelling out over the landlines in use to communicate. This gave rise to phrases such as "Ack-Ack" from AA for anti-aircraft. Pip-emma for pmPM

PM, Pm or pm can refer to:...
.

Examples

The following examples are from various languages and time periods:

Letter	NATO & AviationNATO phonetic alphabet The NATO phonetic alphabet, more formally the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet, is the most widely used ...	British ForcesBritish Armed Forces The armed forces of the United Kingdom are known as the British Armed Forces or Her Majesty's Armed Forces, officially... 1952	RAF 1942-43RAF phonetic alphabet Following the take up of radio, the United Kingdom Royal Air Force used a succession of radiotelephony spelling alphabets to aid c...	NY PoliceFacts About New York City Police Department Reporting to the Chief of Department:*Patrol Services...	FrenchFrench alphabet The French alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet....	German	ItalianItalian alphabet The Italian alphabet is a variant of the Latin alphabet used by the Italian language: ...	Spanish
A	Alpha	Abel	Apple	Adam	Anatole	Anton	AnconaAncona Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche, a region of northeastern Italy, population 101,909 ....	Antonio
ÄÆ ' is a grapheme formed from the letters a and e....	-	-	-	-	-	Ärger	-	-
B	Bravo	Baker	Beer	Boy	Berthe	Berta	BolognaBologna Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, in the Pianura Padana, between the Po River and the Apenn...	Barcelona
C	Charlie	Charlie	Charlie	Charlie	Célestin	Cäsar	ComoComo ----Como is a city in Lombardy, Italy, 45 km north of Milan....	Carmen
ChCh (digraph) Ch is a digraph in the Roman alphabet....	-	-	-	-	-	Charlotte	-	Chocolate
D	Delta	Dog	Dog	David	Désiré	Dora	DomodossolaDomodossola Domodossola is a city in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, in the region of Piedmont, Italy, earlier known as Oscela, Os...	Dolores
E	Echo	Easy	Edward	Edward	Eugène	Emil	EmpoliEmpoli Empoli is a town in Tuscany, Italy, about 30 km southwest of Florence....	Enrique
F	Foxtrot	Fox	Freddy	Frank	François	Friedrich	FirenzeFlorence Florence is the capital city of the region of Tuscany, Italy....
G	Golf	George	George	George	Gaston	Gustav	GenovaGenoa Overview Genoa is a city and a seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....	Gerona
H	Hotel	How	Harry	Harry	Henri	Heinrich	Hotel	Historia
I	IndiaIndia India , officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia....	Item	In	Ida	Irma	Ida	ImolaFacts About Imola Imola is a town, comune and episcopal see in the province of Bologna, located on the Santerno river, in the Emilia-Romagna r...	Inés
J	Juliett	Jig	Jug / Johnny	John	Joseph	Julius	I lunga	José
K	Kilo	King	King	King	Kléber	Kaufmann	Kilo	Kilo
L	Lima	Love	Love	Larry	Louis	Ludwig	LivornoLivorno Livorno is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy....	Lorenzo
LlLl Ll/ll is a digraph which occurs in several natural languages. ...	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Llobregat
M	Mike	Mike	Mother	Mary	Marcel	Martha	MilanoMilan Milan is the main city of northern Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy....	Madrid
N	November	Nan	Nuts	Nora	Nicolas	Nordpol	NapoliNaples Overview Naples is the largest city in southern Italy and capital of Campania region and the Province of Naples....	Navarra
ÑN The letter N is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet....	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ñoño
O	Oscar	Oboe	Orange	Ocean	Oscar	Otto	OtrantoOtranto Overview Otranto is a town and commune in the province of Lecce, in a fertile region, and once famous for its breed of horses....	Oviedo
ÖÖ "*'", or "*'", is a glyph that represents either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, the letter O with u...	-	-	-	-	-	Ökonom	-	-
P	Papa	Peter	Peter	Peter	Pierre	Paula	PadovaPadua The city of Padua, Italy, is the economic and communications hub of the Veneto region in northern Italy....	París
Q	QuebecQuebec Quebec, or Qubec in French, In 1898, the Canadian Parliament passed the first Quebec Boundary Extension Act that expan...	Queen	Queen	Queen	Quintal	Quelle	QuartoQuarto (NA) Quarto is a comune in the Province of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about 11 km northwest of Naples....	Querido
R	Romeo	Roger	Roger / Robert	Robert	Raoul	Richard	RomaRome Rome is the capital of Italy and of its region, called Latium....	Ramón
S	Sierra	Sugar	Suga	Sam	Suzanne	Samuel	SavonaSavona Savona is a seaport and comune in the northern Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera ...	Sábado
SchSCH SCH may refer to:* Sch, the German letter for 'sh' as in 'fish'...	-	-	-	-	-	Schule	-	-
ßß The glyph ' is a ligature of ? and s or z that has become a distinct letter in the German alphabet; its German n...	-	-	-	-	-	Eszett	-	-
T	Tango	Tare	Tommy	Tom	Thérèse	Theodor	TorinoTurin 'Turin is a major industrial city in north-western Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the west ...	Tarragona
U	Uniform	Uncle	Uncle	Union	Ursule	Ulrich	UdineUdine Summary Udine is a city in the north-east of Italy, capital of the historical region of Friuli, in the middle of Friuli-Venezia Giul...	Ulises
ÜFacts About Y The letter Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the Latin alphabet....	-	-	-	-	-	Übermut	-	-
V	Victor	Victor	Vic	Victor	Victor	Viktor	VeneziaVenice Venice is the capital of the region of Veneto and the province of the same name in Italy....	Valencia
W	Whiskey	William	William	William	William	Wilhelm	WashingtonWashington (disambiguation) Washington is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest....	Washington
X	X-ray	X-ray	X-ray	X-ray	Xavier	XanthippeXanthippe Xanthippe was the wife of Socrates....	Ics	Xiquena
Y	Yankee	Yoke	Yoke / Yorker	Young	Yvonne	Ypsilon	YorkYork York is a city in Northern England, at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss....	Yeguna
Z	Zulu	Zebra	Zebra	Zebra	Zoé	Zeppelin	ZaraZadar Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea, with a population of 82 000....	Zaragoza

External links

from Brian Kelk's website
- utility to automatically spell out a text in one of 12 radio alphabets