Phonetic Alphabets

Phonetic alphabets were established in order to remove the ambiguity of letter and number pronunciation. Because of the similarities in the sounds of some characters, and the accompanying potential for misinterpretation, common words that begin with each letter of the alphabet were assigned to represent each of the letters.

Aviators use the International (ITO/NATO) version, while law enforcement agencies tend to use the Police version. Many people not constrained to a particular version of the phonetic alphabet tend to use anything that comes to mind. Is is not unusual to hear people on the phone trying to spell a word by using ad hoc words to represent each letter - many times with equally ambiguous examples like "w" as in "who" - which of course when listening to the word "who," does not necessarily make clear that it is meant to represent the letter "w."

This phonetic alphabet table lists those used by the aviation industry (International ITU / NATO) and the police. I'm not sure how much the Western Union version is used any more.

	International (ITU)/NATO	Police	Western Union
A	Alfa (Al Fah')	Adam	Adam
B	Bravo (Brah' Voh)	Baker	Boston
C	Charlie (Char' Lee)	Charlie	Chicago
D	Delta (Dell' Tah)	David	Denver
E	Echo (Eck' Oh)	Edward	Easy
F	Foxtrot (Foks' Trot)	Frank	Frank
G	Gulf (Golf)	George	George
H	Hotel (Hoh' Tell)	Henry	Henry
I	India (In' Dee Ah)	Ida	Ida
J	Juilette (Jew' Lee Ett)	John	John
K	Kilo (Key' Loh)	King	King
L	Lima (Lee' Mah)	Lincoln	Lincoln
M	Mike (Mike)	Mary	Mary
N	November (No Vem' Ber)	Nancy	New York
O	Oscar (Oss Cah')	Otto	Ocean
P	Papa (Pah' Pah)	Peter	Peter
Q	Quebec (Keh' Beck)	Queen	Queen
R	Romeo (Row' Me Oh)	Robert	Roger
S	Sierra (See Air' Rah)	Susan	Sugar
T	Tango (Tang' Go)	Thomas	Thomas
U	Uniform (You Nee' Form)	Union	Union
V	Victor (Vik Tah')	Victor	Victor
W	Whiskey (Wiss' Key)	William	William
X	X-ray (Ecks' Ray)	X-Ray	X-Ray
Y	Yankee (Yang' Key)	Young	Young
Z	Zulu (Zoo' Loo)	Zebra	Zero
9	Niner (Nyn' Er)

Here is the mother lode of phonetic alphabet websites in dozens of languages

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...