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I prefer the android phonetic alphabet
Alpha
Baklava
Cupcake
Donut
Eclair
Froyo
Gingerbread
Honeycomb
Ice cream
Jelly bean
Kit kat
Lollipop
Marshmallow
Nougat
Oreo
Pie
Quince
Red velvet cheesecake
Snow cone
Tiramisu
Upside down cake
Vanilla
Waffle
I try to stay away from life events requiring x-z
There was a very large number of people who seem to want to write C for Sierra and it's really concerning.
Not only does it mean they've never heard of Sierra Leone which shows a distinct lack of geopolitical knowledge, but they've also never heard of Sierra software which shows that they're not worth talking to.
M like in Mancy
They really missed an opportunity to get the semaphore to look like the letters they represent. At least get the I, K, and T to line up (V gets a pass because at least that pattern goes to the U).
personally, I've always preferred this version:
I always thought we should add the Hot Shots! callsigns
"Copy that, Purple Fluffer Nutter."
"Roger that, Milli Vanilli Chilly Willy."
A radio show I listened to years ago did a competition each day to update each letter of the phonetic alphabet. I don't remember most of them, but they decided that T should be "Technotechnotechno" and that always amused me.
Fingler, Umm?, Chunky, Kristen Stewart is not a great actress.
I've always enjoyed playing with folks who actually know this by giving them intentionally misleading cues. Instead of "E as in Echo", say "G as in Gecko". That sort of thing. Cuneiform, Frisky, Mango, Oubliette, Zima...
Now I want all 26 done this way... D as in django would probably be the best though.
It's ALFA https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified_136216.htm
Don't ask me how I know. It's annoying.
These guides always misspell Alfa
Alpha is confusing for not native English speakers, so it's supposed to be spelt with an F.
At least they got Juliett correct. It's two T's to keep French speakers from mispronouncing it.
I know these... And for 20 years I refuse to use any, its way funnier to hear the cringe on the other side.
Bonus points to use things that sound like other things for example: "K as in Knife"
P as in Psoriasis....
Some options not yet in these threads:
- J as in Jalapeno.
...or J as in graphics interchange format 😈
FYI, the semaphore signs are shown from the listener's PoV, so if you are signing to someone, you have to mirror the directions you see in this image. So for example to send a J, you raise your right flag and point the left out level.
I appreciate the Archer reference
I remember someone screaming for a code down a phone line once and my mate started with the whole “G for gnome” , “P for pterodactyl” etc.
I laughed.
For something so commonly used, it's got some pretty glaring flaws. Most critically, 'golf' and 'mike' - single syllable, which over radio comms often doesn't sound like shit. Compare to something like 'oscar', which even if either half of it gets all staticky you still hear "osc--" or "--car" which is enough to still receive an accurate exchange of info.
My more whiny complaints are that the number of syllables are inconsistent, F and X use compound words instead of one single complete word which feels... icky... x gets a pass cuz x is always janky and x-ray is perfect. Some of the entries rhyme with commonly used words that could confuse someone who's either inexperienced or in a stressful situation like being shot at. For example, "echo" could be misheard as "gecko" and even though "gecko" isn't on the list, our brains do stupid shit when they're saturated with adrenaline, so something like this should be as absolutely idiot-proof as possible.
If I could magic that fucker into something new, I'd shoot for:
every entry is exactly three syllables.
no two of the same syllables in any entry can rhyme with those two syllables of another entry. I.E., "Uniform" and "Chloroform" are not compatible because syllables 2 and 3 are too similar.
Each entry should be as common a word as possible, in as low/unspecialized a reading level as possible. I.E., "November" is recognizable by nearly everyone; vs something like "Ganglia" which is gibberish to anyone without specialty knowledge requiring them to be familiar with ganglia.
No compound or multiple word entries.
X gets a pass cuz x is always janky and x-ray is perfect.
Prototype phonetic alphabet must be first scrutinized by a panel consisting of a linguist, a speech pathologist, an English teacher, a 7 year old, a highschooler, a geriatric with severe hearing loss, and a junior enlisted US Marine. Their job is to find any potential for confusion.
Having a 7 year old and a junior enlisted US Marine seems redundant
But with your new rules, x can be xylophone so you don’t need the special case rule for x anymore.
Always been a bit annoyed that people describe Morse as a binary code, it isn't, it's technically trinary, you have 3 symbols, dot, dash, and space. Without a space you can't discern the difference between "hi" and "eeeeee".
one of my last jobs needed me to use this for reading inventory locations to a crane operator over a phone. he always seemed slightly bemused that I didn't know the phonetic alphabet and had to make up my own phonetics for him
I practice this by reading off license plates while I’m driving.
It’s not a useful skill at all because the only time I use it is calling somewhere, and nobody else knows them.
You have to say it anyway, make them the weird one for not putting two and two together. This shit was created for a reason.
I have found it really useful for confusing AI phone support agents too. Reading a postcode as "Alpha bravo 1 2 3 charlie delta" and it had no idea what to do so put me through to a person.
I know about this. I still choose my own rules. Once I said "X for xylophone". It makes things fun.
As a Swedish IT technician, I use two phonetic alphabets.
The Swedish phonetic alphabet was created in the 1890s and first published in 1902, in the 1960s a few entries were changed to reduce the risk of confusion.
A - Adam
B - Bertil
C - Cesar
D - David
E - Erik
F - Filip
G - Gustav
H - Helge
I - Ivar
J - Johan
K - Kalle
L - Ludvig
M - Martin
N - Niklas
O - Olle (air traffic communications), Olof (military use)
P - Petter
Q - Qvintus
R - Rudolf
S - Sigurd
T - Tore
U - Urban
V - Viktor
W - Wilhelm
X - Xerxes
Y - Yngve
Z - Zäta
Å - Åke
Ä - Ärlig
Ö - Östen
it seems hard unless you use it a lot and then it's second nature. I've had to actually stop myself from using it in places like for a drive-thru pickup code, as that never goes well.
