NATO phonetic alphabet

The Nato phonetic alphabet is not a phonetic alphabet in the sense in which that term is used in phonetics, i.e., it is not a system for transcribing speech sounds. See the phonetic alphabet disambiguation page, and also International Phonetic Alphabet and SAMPA.

The NATO phonetic alphabet is a common name for the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which assigned words to the letters of the English alphabet so that critical combinations of letters could be pronounced and understood by aircrew and air traffic controllers regardless of their native language. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) have similar versions.

Alphabet and pronunciation

Letter	Word	Pronunciation	Letter	Word	Pronunciation
A	Alfa (ICAO, ITU, FAA) Alpha (ANSI)	AL FAH	S	Sierra	SEE AIR RAH (ICAO, ITU) SEE AIR AH (FAA)
B	Bravo	BRAH VOH	T	Tango	TANG GO
C	Charlie	CHAR LEE or SHAR LEE (ICAO, ITU)	U	Uniform	YOU NEE FORM or OO NEE FORM (ICAO, ITU)
D	Delta	DELL TAH	V	Victor	VIK TAH
E	Echo	ECK OH	W	Whiskey	WISS KEY
F	Foxtrot	FOKS TROT	X	X-ray	ECKS RAY (ICAO, ITU) ECKS RAY (FAA)
G	Golf	GOLF	Y	Yankee	YANG KEY
H	Hotel	HO TELL (ICAO) HOH TELL (ITU, FAA)	Z	Zulu	ZOO LOO
I	India	IN DEE AH	0	Zero (ICAO, FAA) Nadazero (ITU)	ZE-RO (ICAO, FAA) NAH-DAH-ZAY-ROH (ITU)
J	Juliett (ICAO, ITU, FAA) Juliet (ANSI)	JEW LEE ETT	1	One (ICAO, FAA) Unaone (ITU)	WUN (ICAO, FAA) OO-NAH-WUN (ITU)
K	Kilo	KEY LOH	2	Two (ICAO, FAA) Bissotwo (ITU)	TOO (ICAO, FAA) BEES-SOH-TOO (ITU)
L	Lima	LEE MAH	3	Three (ICAO, FAA) Terrathree (ITU)	TREE (ICAO, FAA) TAY-RAH-TREE (ITU)
M	Mike	MIKE	4	Four (ICAO, FAA) Kartefour (ITU)	FOW-er (ICAO, FAA) KAR-TAY-FOWER (ITU)
N	November	NO VEM BER	5	Five (ICAO, FAA) Pantafive (ITU)	FIFE (ICAO, FAA) PAN-TAH-FIVE (ITU)
O	Oscar	OSS CAH	6	Six (ICAO, FAA) Soxisix (ITU)	SIX (ICAO, FAA) SOK-SEE-SIX (ITU)
P	Papa	PAH PAH	7	Seven (ICAO, FAA) Setteseven (ITU)	SEV-en (ICAO, FAA) SAY-TAY-SEVEN (ITU)
Q	Quebec	KEH BECK	8	Eight (ICAO, FAA) Oktoeight (ITU)	AIT (ICAO, FAA) OK-TOH-AIT (ITU)
R	Romeo	ROW ME OH	9	Nine (ICAO, FAA) Novenine (ITU)	NIN-er (ICAO, FAA) NO-VAY-NINER (ITU)

The spelling and pronunciation given here is that officially prescribed by the ICAO. Nevertheless, they state that 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.

Where the ITU, FAA, or ANSI differ from the ICAO, their pronunciations or spellings are also given in the table. The FAA gives different spellings for their pronunciations depending on the publication consulted. These are from the FAA Air Traffic Control manual (2.4.16), ignoring errors like ECKSRAY and YANGKEY. ANSI gives English spellings, but does not give pronunciations or numbers. The ITU numbers are quite different from all other versions.

History and use

Despite its common name, the alphabet doesn't seem to appear in any official North Atlantic Treaty Organization publication. It may have received the name NATO phonetic alphabet because it has been adopted by the military of each of NATO's major countries, and is thus used by them when engaged in NATO exercises.

This alphabet is sometimes inappropriately referred to as the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is actually the official name of an alphabet used in linguistics created in the late nineteenth century.

All 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.

The first internationally recognized alphabet was adopted by the International Telecommunication Union (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 international maritime service, probably until 1959:

Amsterdam Baltimore Casablanca Denmark Edison Florida Gallipoli Havana Italia Jerusalem Kilogramme Liverpool Madagascar New_York Oslo Paris Quebec Roma Santiago Tripoli Upsala Valencia Washington Xanthippe Yokohama Zurich

During World War II, the requirements of joint Allied operations led to the development of the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet ("able baker"), although several RAF phonetic alphabets 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:

Alfa Bravo Coca Delta Echo Foxtrot Golf Hotel India Juliett Kilo Lima Metro Nectar Oscar Papa Quebec Romeo Sierra Tango Union Victor Whisky Extra Yankee Zulu

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 above was implemented on March 1, 1956, and was undoubtedly adopted shortly thereafter by the International Telecommunication Union (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).

In the official international version of the alphabet, the non-English spellings Alfa and Juliett are found. Alfa is spelled with an f for the benefit of native Spanish speakers because they will pronounce ph as if it were a p with a silent h—the English word alpha is alfa in Spanish. Juliett is spelled 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 tuh. In English versions of the alphabet, one or both may revert to their standard English spelling.

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 Three Zero in your twelve o'clock". Several letter codes and abbreviations using the phonetic alphabet have become well-known, such as Bravo Zulu (letter code BZ) for "well done", Checkpoint Charlie (Checkpoint C) in Berlin, and Zulu for Greenwich Mean Time or Coordinated Universal Time.

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.

Older "phonetic alphabets"

In addition to the alphabets referred to above, numerous other "phonetic alphabets" (which of course, are not phonetic alphabets at all in the sense in which the term is used in phonetics) have been used in the past.

• World War I western front trench slang: Ack Beer Charlie Don Edward Freddie Gee Harry Ink Johnnie King London Emma Nuts Oranges Pip Queen Robert Esses Toc Uncle Vic William X-ray Yorker Zebra
  This appears to be the origin of the RAF slang phrases such as ack emma for morning, pip emma for afternoon and ack-ack for anti-aircraft. Ack Emma was also used for 'Air Mechanic' in the Royal Flying Corps (1914-18).

• British Royal Navy during World War I: Apples Butter Charlie Duff Edward Freddy George Harry Ink Johnny King London Monkey Nuts Orange Pudding Queenie Robert Sugar Tommy Uncle Vinegar Willie Xerxes Yellow Zebra

Bibliography

• L.J. Rose, "Aviation's ABC: The development of the ICAO spelling alphabet", ICAO Bulletin 11/2 (1956) 12-14
• Aeronautical Telecommunications: Annex 10 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Volume II, Chapter 5
• International Telecommunication Union, "Appendix 16: Phonetic Alphabet and Figure Code", Radio Regulations (Geneva, 1959) 430-431

External links

• ICAO Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet (pp A-6 & A-10) (an official source, but in Microsoft Word format (332KB), not HTML)
• ICAO Phonetics by the FAA
• American National Standard T1.523-2001, Telecom Glossary 2000 (English version of alphabet)
• ICAO phonetic alphabet by Canada
• ITU Phonetic Alphabet and Figure Code
• Most comprehensive collection of phonetic alphabets