Basic Information
A phonetic alphabet (also called a spelling alphabet) is a series of words used to pronounce letters which might otherwise be mistaken - normally during transmission by radio or telephone - when trying to spell out a word or code.
The most common such currently in use in the English speaking world is the NATO Phonetic alphabet which was adopted in 1956 to replace a variety of older alphabets used by assorted nations:
| Letter | NATO Standard | British Army1 | US Military | International Civil2 |
| 1956+ | ~1914-1956 | 1941-1956 | 1927-19653 | |
| A | Alfa4 | Ack | Able | Amsterdam |
| B | Bravo | Beer | Baker | Baltimore |
| C | Charlie | Charlie | Charlie | Casablanca |
| D | Delta | Don | Dog | Denmark |
| E | Echo | Edward | Easy | Edison |
| F | Foxtrot | Freddie | Fox | Florida |
| G | Gamma | Gee | George | Gallipoli |
| H | Hotel | Harry | How | Havana |
| I | India | Ink | Item | Italia |
| J | Juliett5 | Johnnie | Jig | Jerusalem |
| K | Kilo | King | King | Kilogramme |
| L | Lima | London | Love | Liverpool |
| M | Mike | Emma | Mike | Madagascar |
| N | November | Nuts | Nan | New York |
| O | Oscar | Oranges | Oboe | Oslo |
| P | Papa | Pip | Peter | Paris |
| Q | Quebec | Queen | Queen | Quebec |
| R | Romeo | Robert | Roger | Roma |
| S | Sierra | Essex | Sugar | Santiago |
| T | Tango | Toc | Tare | Tripoli |
| U | Uniform | Uncle | Uncle | Upsala |
| V | Victor | Vic | Victor | Valencia |
| W | Whiskey | William | William | Washington |
| X | X-Ray | X-ray | X-ray | Xanthippe |
| Y | Yankee | Yorker | Yoke | Yokohama |
| Z | Zulu | Zebra | Zebra | Zurich |
Note that before using phonetic spelling a trained user is likely to use the prophrase "I SPELL" and finish with "END" as in "Subject's name is Gibbs, I spell Gamma, India, Bravo, Bravo, Sierra, End. Be advised armed and dangerous. Over.".
As well as militaries, it is used by police forces and anyone else who communicates by radio- sailors, pilots, etc. NATO Alphabet letters were used as codenames for Soviet submarine classes- see Reporting Name.
Other phonetic alphabets have also been used, but were phased out because many of the words were hard to pronounce for speakers of languages other than English. An example is the US alphabet beginning Able Baker, which was used to name sections of beach on D-Day.
Observe also the differences between an officially compiled alphabet (such as the 1956 NATO) and a user generated one like the British Army one … and, for that matter, military alphabets and the civilian one mostly used by transport regulators.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- Any military character of the modern era should be proficient in a phonetic alphabet - although using one excessively probably counts as an annoying habit. It may also confuse the hell out of civilians.
- Which alphabet he uses will probably tell you where he served and when - although the US military still tended to use the pre-NATO version into the Vietnam era. The British forces, having been plagued with a variety of different phonetic alphabets, were rather faster adopters.
- Those who are only pretending to have served are liable to have gaps in their proficiency and knowledge.
- Getting it hilariously wrong is also a good trope (noting some of the deliberate disconnects in the British Army alphabet) - and may even stray into slang mangling of the failure, rather than the provocation type.
- The "user profiling" in home made versions may also be a source of insight … "that's Able, A for, uh, advocaat, B for beer, L for liquor and E for … uh … Egg-nogg?"
- Pre-modern campaigns (or time travelling ones) may need to make use of older alphabets.
Names…