Sierra Echo One Nine, Whisky One Two Zero!

Your eyebrows have probably shot up into your forehead, wondering what exactly I
am talking about. But don t think I ve gone dull in the head; this is the phonetic
alphabet I m talking about.
The phonetic alphabet has come a long way since it was first created by the NATO
allies in the 1950s; it ensured that all communication was intelligible and und
erstandable in the midst of the battle. The phonetic alphabet is also called the
radiotelephony-spelling alphabet; this is a method that requires words to be sp
elt out by their letters, where Mary would be Mike Alfa Romeo Yankee.
The NATO Phonetic Alphabet, thought not the only one in existence, is the most p
opular. In fact most western and European countries follow the NATO phonetic alp
habet. Though the NATO phonetic alphabet is called the phonetic alphabet, it has
nothing to do with the phonetic transcription system like the International Pho
netic Alphabet.
To get a little background information, the first set of phonetically alphabet w
as adopted by the ITU in the late 1920s, this evolved in the 1930s. This alphabe
t was later used by the Navy and by civil aviation in the World War II. The orig
inal set of phonetic alphabet was:
Amsterdam, Baltimore, Casablanca, Denmark, Edison, Florida, Gallipoli, Havana, I
talia, Jerusalem, Kilogramme, Liverpool, Madagascar, New York, Oslo, Paris, Queb
ec, Roma, Santiago, Tripoli, Upsala, Valencia, Washington, Xanthippe, Yokohama,
Zurich.
These were evidently a little difficult to pronounce and use. This was later mod
ified and reinvented in 1951 by the Civil Aviation and now was:
Alfa, Bravo, Coca, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima,
Metro, Nectar, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Union, Victor, Whisky
, Extra, Yankee, Zulu.
NATO Phonetic Alphabet
Each one of us has a distinct accent and a particular way of pronunciation. The
English pronounce things differently from the Americans and the Australians, and
the Indians have a pronunciation system that though closely similarly to the En
glish, the accent can give rise to complications. This is where the NATO phoneti
c alphabet is a big boon.
Here is the list of the alphabet:
A Alfa or Alpha
B Bravo
C Charlie
D Delta
E Echo
F Foxtrot
G Golf
H Hotel
I India
J Juliet
K Kilo
L Lima
M Mike
N November
O Oscar
P Papa
Q Quebec
R Romeo
S Sierra
T Tango
U Uniform
V Victor
W Whiskey
X X-ray
Y Yankee
Z Zulu
0 Zero
1 One
2 Two
3 Three
4 Four
5 Five
6 Six
7 Seven
8 Eight
9 - Nine
The phonetic Alphabet was created to spell out parts of a message that could lea
d to confusion. Letter like N and M sound similar, so do B, D and P. And the rad
io at that time was prone to a lot of static, and in the times of the war, clari
ty was next to impossible, yet so important. And when the American and British a
rmy realized its importance, we can all say that it is important isn t it. Now eac
h association doesn t follow its own, but rather prefers using the NATO Phonetic A
lphabet which is quite universally acceptable.