Allied military phonetic spelling alphabets
- The Joint Army/Navy 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 phonetic notation.
The Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet was a radio alphabet developed in 1941 and was used by all branches of the United States military until the promulgation of the ICAO spelling alphabet (Alfa, Bravo) in 1956, which replaced it. Before the Joint Army/Navy (JAN) phonetic alphabet, each branch of the armed forces used its own radio alphabet, leading to difficulties in interbranch communication.
The U.S. Army used this alphabet in modified form, along with the British Army and Canadian Army from 1943 on, with "Sugar" replacing "Sail".
The Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet was used as storm names for Atlantic basin hurricanes from 1950 to 1952 before being replaced with female names.
Vestiges of the system remain in use in the US Navy, in the form of Material Conditions of Readiness, used in damage control. Dog, William, X-Ray, Yoke, and Zebra all reference designations of fittings, hatches, or doors. The response "Roger" for "._." or "R," to mean "received," also derives from this alphabet.
| Letter | Phonetic | Letter | Phonetic | Letter | Phonetic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Able | M | Mike | Y | Yoke |
| B | Baker | N | Nan | Z | Zebra |
| C | Charlie | O | Oboe | 0 | Zero |
| D | Dog | P | Peter | 1 | One |
| E | Easy | Q | Queen | 2 | Two |
| F | Fox | R | Roger | 3 | Three |
| G | George | S | Sail/Sugar | 4 | Four |
| H | How | T | Tare | 5 | Five |
| I | Item | U | Uncle | 6 | Six |
| J | Jig | V | Victor | 7 | Seven |
| K | King | W | William | 8 | Eight |
| L | Love | X | X-ray | 9 | Nine |
Literary allusions
- Able Baker Charlie (an anthropomorphic bread-baking mouse) was a children's picture book character created by author/illustrator Richard Scarry.[2]
- Uncle Sugar, being the way the letters US were spelled out, was used in the armed services in place of Uncle Sam, especially when describing waste of taxpayers' money on needless equipment or stinginess of not providing necessary or expected equipment. Robert Heinlein used this in some of his stories.
References
- ^ Joint Army/Navy (JAN) phonetic alphabet from alt.usage.english (at the end)
- ^ Scarry, Richard (1968). What Do People Do All Day? Random House, 1968. ISBN 978-0-394-81823-8.
External links
- Phonetic Alphabet and Signal Flags by Naval Historical Center (five phonetic alphabets: 1913, 1927, 1938, WWII, 1957–present)
- Phonetic Alphabet by United States Army Signal Center (four phonetic alphabets: 1916, 1939, 1944, 1961)