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When you need to spell out something – maybe you are calling a bank for example or perhaps you are a pilot, it is most likely you will use a standard phonetic alphabet. The original NATO alphabet was devised after the 2nd World War. The BBC celebrated this in a special programme, saying “The original intent was to have a system of linguistic purity which would avoid some of the catastrophic misunderstandings arising from communications during the Great War. Is it perhaps the only vestige of an internationally unifying dream which still has some use? “ It’s not something used to teach pronunciation.
The current standard alphabet in English is:
Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Whisky, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.
A phonetic alphabet was first used in the 1st world war by radio operators and if you look at the version they used you can see how the changes reflect changes in society. For example B was for Butter in 1918, Beer in 1942, Baker in 1952 before becoming Bravo today. In 1914-18 F was Freddy, I was Ink, K was King, L was London and P was Pudding – a real reflection of the times! There are similar alphabets in many other languages – they tend to all be first names or cities, for example in Spanish ABC is Antonio, Barcelona, Carmen while in French it is Anatole, Berthe, Celestin and in German it is Anton, Berta, Casar ! If you’d like to see the whole list you can find the alphabets of the world here.
There is also a silent alphabet where the letters in English are not sounded, put together by John Higgins. In 1968 an American linguist, answering the question “How do you pronounce TESOL?” (the acronym of the Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) answered: “T as in castle, E as in give, S as in island, O as in people, and L as in calm.” In fact you can, with some use of proper names and loan words, create a complete silent alphabet for English, as follows:
A as in BREAD
B as in DEBT
C as in INDICTMENT
D as in HANDKERCHIEF
E as in GIVE
F as in HALFPENNY
G as in GNAW
H as in HOUR
I as in FRIEND
J as in MARIJUANA
K as in KNOW
L as in CALM
M as the first M in MNEMONIC
N as in AUTUMN
O as in PEOPLE
P as in PSALM
Q as in COLQUHOUN (a Scottish surname)
R as in FORECASTLE
S as in ISLAND
T as in CASTLE
U as in GUARD
V as in MILNGAVIE (a Scottish place name)
W as in WRONG
X as in SIOUX
Y as in PEPYS
Z as in RENDEZVOUS
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