Code 33 : Phonetic Alphabet

The NATO phonetic alphabet, more accurately known as the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet and also called the ICAO phonetic or ICAO spelling alphabet, as well as the ITU phonetic alphabet, is the most widely used spelling alphabet. Although often called "phonetic alphabets", spelling alphabets do not have any association with phonetic transcription systems, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet. Instead, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) alphabet assigned code words acrophonically to the letters of the English alphabet so that critical combinations of letters and numbers can be pronounced and understood by those who transmit and receive voice messages by radio or telephone regardless of their native language or the presence of transmission static.
The 26 code words in the NATO phonetic alphabet are assigned to the 26 letters of the English alphabet in alphabetical order as follows: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. Some of the 26 words have altered pronunciations: Charlie can be either "char-lee" or "shar-lee", and Uniform is either "you-nee-form" or "oo-nee-form", neither of which is the English pronunciation of the word. Oscar is pronounced "oss-cah" and Victor as "vik-tah" without the 'r', even by people who would normally pronounce it. Papa is pronounced "Pa-PAH" with the accent on the second syllable instead of the first. The code word Quebec is pronounced as French "keh-beck". The ICAO and FAA use the standard number words of English (zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine) with four altered pronunciations (tree, fower, fife, niner), whereas the ITU and IMO use ten code words for numbers (nadazero, unaone, bissotwo, terrathree, kartefour, pantafive, soxisix, setteseven, octoeight, novenine).

History of the Nato Phonetic Alphabet

The Nato Phonetic alphabet's full name is "international radiotelephony spelling alphabet".The NATO Phonetic Alphabet was developed in the 1950s to avoid the misunderstanding caused by poor radio acoustics where an S and an F for example are easily confused. It replaced other phonetic alphabets,such as the RAF phonetic alphabet, Western Front slang or "signalese", Royal navy phonetic alphabet and the US military "able baker" alphabet. The experiences of which were used to produce the Nato standard. Certain non English speaking countries use special umlaut characters which have their own extensions.

Phonetic Alphabet Tables

Useful for spelling words and names over the phone. I printed this page, cut out the table containing the NATO phonetic alphabet (below), and taped it to the side of my computer monitor when I was a telephone help desk technician.
An alternate version, Western Union's phonetic alphabet, is presented in case the NATO version sounds too militaristic to you.
I was inspired to recreate this page and post it online when I overheard a co-worker say "L, as in Log" over the phone.
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1. NATO Phonetic Alphabet

Letter	phonetic letter
A	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

2. Western Union Phonetic Alphabet

 Western Union has developed their own phonetic alphabet as well.

Letter	phonetic letter
A	Adams
B	Boston
C	Chicago
D	Denver
E	Easy
F	Frank
G	George
H	Henry
I	Ida
J	John
K	King
L	Lincoln
M	Mary
N	New York
O	Ocean
P	Peter
Q	Queen
R	Roger
S	Sugar
T	Thomas
U	Union
V	Victor
W	William
X	X-ray
Y	Young
Z	Zero

3.LAPD phonetic alphabet
 The LAPD phonetic alphabet is a spelling alphabet, similar to the ICAO spelling alphabet, that is used by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and other local and state law enforcement agencies across the state of California and elsewhere in the United States. It is the "over the air" communication used for properly understanding a broadcast of letters in the form of easily understood words. It is not a phonetic alphabet in the sense of a system for transcribing speech sounds, for which see the phonetic alphabet disambiguation page and phonetic notation.

History

At some point in the early history of emergency service mobile radio systems, the LAPD developed its own phonetic alphabet for relaying precise information on individual letters. For example, the license plate "8QXG518" might be read by a civilian as "eight cue ex jee five eighteen" but with accuracy being paramount, the police dispatcher would say "eight queen x-ray george five one eight." Despite the development in 1941 of the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet and its replacement, circa 1956, by the NATO phonetic alphabet (currently used by all NATO armed forces, civil aviation, telecommunications, and some law enforcement agencies), the LAPD and other law enforcement and emergency service agencies throughout the United States continue to use their traditional system.
The LAPD phonetic alphabet is also known as the APCO phonetic alphabet, named after the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) , which was responsible for making the LAPD alphabet known and adopted by other law enforcement agencies in the US.

The LAPD phonetic alphabet represents the letters of the English alphabet using words as follows:

LAPD phonetic alphabet

Letter	Phonetic	Letter	Phonetic	Number	Phonetic
A	Adam	N	Nora	0	Zero
B	Boy	O	Ocean	1	One
C	Charles	P	Paul	2	Two
D	David	Q	Queen	3	Three
E	Edward	R	Robert	4	Four
F	Frank	S	Sam	5	Five
G	George	T	Tom	6	Six
H	Henry	U	Union	7	Seven
I	Ida	V	Victor	8	Eight
J	John	W	William	9	Nine
K	King	X	X-ray
L	Lincoln	Y	Young
M	Mary	Z	Zebra