LANA

In a phone conversation with a vendor they interrupted me while spelling to say something like "oh thank God you're using the normal one and not shit like 'frankfurter' "

O as in opossum, p as in pnumonia, c as in Chicago.

Beautiful, though they didn't really describe dd well

🎵Foxtrot... Uniform... Charlie... Kilo....! 🎶

(Bloodhound Gang song)

Pretty sure it's Ice Cream Sandwich for I.

Fuck me if someone tells me over the phone:

Cupcake, Upside down cake, Marshmallow

Quiche doesn't really work, but otherwise it's not bad.

It was designed like that for a reason. There's a lack of one syllable words there, and the ones that are there sound very different. It's also used for messages that require precision that the average person doesn't need in day to day life.

"Fox" could be confused with "box", so it goes with "Foxtrot".

Also, keep in mind that everything is a product of its time.

Not really, but it makes sense to me.

I learned the phonetic alphabet partly because of the fact that I obtained my amateur radio operator qualification. I'm a "ham" radio person.

Hearing these on the radio, which isn't super clear to begin with in most cases, it's much easier to use this way and almost trivial to understand others when they spell anything over the radio. Given this is the NATO alphabet, it's used by all kinds of people, from ham operators like me, to government/military. Often in conjunction with some kind of communications system, often but not always radio communications, where the signal might be poor.

I think the original intent was to ensure that all letters sounded as unique as possible, so even if you only catch part of the word (maybe the rest is obfuscated by static), you still understand the what was said.

This alphabet was carefully designed to minimize the chance of confusion. I'd rather be accurate than fun.

... I don't get invited to many parties.

This is all fun and games until someone says "M as in Mancy"

A as in Aye

E as in Ewe

S as in Sea

W as in Why

For me it’s Quebec and Kilo, even after more than 15 years in aviation.

Like for spelling my handle here, my first reflex is to say Sierra Quebec uniform…Uuuh no, Sierra Kilo Uniform November Kilo.

Zebra is much closer to Sierra and Papa, than Zulu is to any other word in that list - they are specifically chosen to be distinctly understandable in difficult-to-hear situations. And should they change it every time a new brand gets popular that's kinda similar to one of the words?

Zulu could have been different, but has "no" (read:minimized) risk of being mistaken for hulu because hulu is not part of the phonetic alphabet. The phonetic alphabet is standardized because it must be, you can find rhymes for any one of these words. No list could be reasonably constructed that wouldn't. Therefore the only reasonable choice is a standardized list that is designed to not self rhyme.

We used to do it with everything but the NATO alphabet. Everyone had their own version, I would mostly use first names, some colleagues would do cities, animals, countries, etc etc.

Instructions unclear, stuck under the twisted metal of my vehicle. Send paramedics.

I feel like "N as in Nan" could easily sound like "M as in Man."

the 2nd list isn't great.. Chicago and Sugar? N is two words, Mary and Henry are similar.. I think part of the NATO one is you'd be able to tell even if you miss part of the word.

As a non-native speaker I'd have no idea how to pronounce or spell Jig, Oboe, Tare or Yoke

Aigs?

Iggs!

It's not even consistent within the US. I've known people who, if they said that sentence over the phone it would sound a lot like "E as in A"