Spelling alphabet

A spelling alphabet is a set of words used to represent the letters of an alphabet in oral communication, especially over a two-way radio or telephone. The words chosen to represent the letters sound sufficiently different from each other to clearly differentiate them. This avoids any confusion that could easily otherwise result from the names of letters that sound similar, except for some small difference easily missed or easily degraded by the imperfect sound quality of the apparatus. For example, in the Latin alphabet, the letters B, P, and D sound similar and could easily be confused, but the words "bravo", "papa" and "delta" sound completely different, making confusion unlikely.
Any suitable words can be used in the moment, making this form of communication easy even for people not trained on any particular standardized spelling alphabet. For example, it is common to hear a nonce form like "A as in 'apple', D as in 'dog', P as in 'paper'" over the telephone in customer support contexts. However, to gain the advantages of standardization in contexts involving trained persons, a standard version can be convened by an organization. Many standardized spelling alphabets exist, mostly owing to historical siloization, where each organization simply created its own. International air travel created a need for a worldwide standard.
Today the most widely known spelling alphabet is the ICAO International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, also known as the NATO phonetic alphabet, which is used for Roman letters. Spelling alphabets also exist for Greek and for Russian.

Terminology

Spelling alphabets are called by various names, according to context. These synonyms include spelling alphabet, word-spelling alphabet, voice procedure alphabet, radio alphabet, radiotelephony alphabet, telephone alphabet, and telephony alphabet. A spelling alphabet is also often called a phonetic alphabet, especially by amateur radio enthusiasts, recreational sailors in the US and Australia, and NATO military organizations, despite this usage of the term producing a naming collision with the usage of the same phrase in phonetics to mean a notation used for phonetic transcription or phonetic spelling, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is used to indicate the sounds of human speech.

History

The names of the letters of the English alphabet are "a", "bee", "cee", "dee", "e", etc. These can be difficult to discriminate, particularly over a limited-bandwidth and noisy communications channel, hence the use in aviation and by armed services of unambiguous substitute names for use in electrical voice communication such as telephone and radio.
A large number of spelling alphabets have been developed over the past century, with the first ones being used to overcome problems with the early wired telephone networks, and the later ones being focused on wireless two-way radio links. Often, each communications company and each branch of each country's military developed its own spelling alphabet, with the result that one 1959 research effort documented a full 203 different spelling alphabets, comprising 1600 different words, leading the author of the report to ask:
Each word in the spelling alphabet typically replaces the name of the letter with which it starts. It is used to spell out words when speaking to someone not able to see the speaker, or when the audio channel is not clear. The lack of high frequencies on standard telephones makes it hard to distinguish an 'F' from an 'S' for example. Also, the lack of visual cues during oral communication can cause confusion. For example, lips are closed at the start of saying the letter "B" but open at the beginning of the letter "D" making these otherwise similar-sounding letters more easily discriminated when looking at the speaker. Without these visual cues, such as during announcements of airline gate numbers "B1" and "D1" at an airport, "B" may be confused with "D" by the listener. Spelling out one's name, a password or a ticker symbol over the telephone are other scenarios where a spelling alphabet is useful.
British Army signallers began using a partial spelling alphabet in the late 19th century. Recorded in the 1898 "Signalling Instruction" issued by the War Office and followed by the 1904 Signalling Regulations this system differentiated only the letters most frequently misunderstood: Ack Beer C D E F G H I J K L eMma N O Pip Q R eSses Toc U Vic W X Y Z. This alphabet was the origin of phrases such as "ack-ack", "pip-emma" for pm and Toc H for an ex-servicemen's association. It was developed on the Western Front of the First World War. The RAF developed their "telephony spelling alphabet", which was adopted by all three services and civil aviation in the UK from 1921.
It was later formally codified to provide a word for all 26 letters.
For civilian users, in particular in the field of finance, alternative alphabets arose. Common personal names were a popular choice, and the First Name Alphabet came into common use.

Voice procedure

Spelling alphabets are especially useful when speaking in a noisy environment when clarity and promptness of communication is essential, for example during two-way radio communication between an aircraft pilot and air traffic control, or in military operations. Whereas the names of many letters sound alike, the set of replacement words can be selected to be as distinct from each other as possible, to minimise the likelihood of ambiguity or mistaking one letter for another. For example, if a burst of static cuts off the start of an English-language utterance of the letter J, it may be mistaken for A or K. In the international radiotelephony spelling alphabet known as the ICAO (or NATO) phonetic alphabet, the sequence J–A–K would be pronounced Juliett–Alfa–Kilo. Some voice procedure standards require numbers to be spelled out digit by digit, so some spelling alphabets replace confusable digit names with more distinct alternatives; for example, the NATO alphabet has “niner” for 9 to distinguish it better from 5 and the German word “nein”.

Flaghoist spelling alphabets

Although no radio or traditional telephone communications are involved in communicating flag signals among ships, the instructions for which flags to hoist are relayed by voice on each ship displaying flags, and whether this is done by shouting between decks, sound tubes, or sound-powered telephones, some of the same distortions that make a spelling alphabet for radiotelephony also make a spelling alphabet desirable for directing seamen in which flags to hoist. The first documented use of this were two different alphabets used by U.S. Navy circa 1908. By 1942, the U.S. Army's radiotelephony spelling alphabet was associated with the International Code of Signals flags.

Telephone spelling alphabets

While spelling alphabets today are mostly used over two-way radio voice circuits, early on in telecommunications there were also telephone-specific spelling alphabets, which were developed to deal with the noisy conditions on long-distance circuits. Their development was loosely intertwined with radiotelephony spelling alphabets, but were developed by different organizations; for example, AT&T developed a spelling alphabet for its long-distance operators, another for its international operators; Western Union developed one for the public to use when dictating telegrams over the telephone; and ITU-T developed a spelling alphabet for telephone networks, while ITU-R was involved in the development of radiotelephony spelling alphabets. Even though both of these groups were part of the same ITU, and thus part of the UN, their alphabets often differed from each other.
Uniquely, the 1908 Tasmanian telegraph operator's code was designed to be memorized as follows:

Symbol

1904 British Army

1904 AT&T

1908 Tasmania

1910 Western Union

1912 Western Union

1914 British Post Office

1917 AT&T

c. 1917 AT&T Overseas

1918 Western Union

Western Union

1932 ITU-T IITS Article 40

1942 Western Union

1947 International Telecommunications Convention

1958 International Telecommunications Convention

Ack

Authority

Adams

Apple

Alice

AMERICA

Adams

Amsterdam

Andrew

Adams

Amsterdam

Beer

Bills

Boston

Brother

Bertha

BENJAMIN

Boston

Baltimore

Benjamin

Boston

Baltimore

abc

Capture

Chicago

Charlie

Charles

CHARLIE

Chicago

Casablanca

Charles

Chicago

Casablanca

bcd

Destroy

Dora

Denver

Dover

David

DAVID

Denver

Danemark

David

Denver

Danemark

Englishmen

Edward

Eastern

Edward

EDWARD

Edward

Edison

Edward

Edison

def

Fractious

D-E-F

Frank

Father

Frank

FRANK

Frank

Florida

Frederick

Frank

Florida

Galloping

George

GEORGE

George

Gallipoli

George

Gallipoli

fgh

High

Henry

Harry

Henry

HARRY

Henry

Havana

Harry

Henry

Havana

Invariably

Ireland

India

Ida

ISAAC

Ida

Italia

Isaac

Ida

Italia

Juggling

Jersey

Jack

James

JACK

John

Jérusalem

Jack

John

Jude

Knights

King

Kate

KING

King

Kilogramme

King

Kilogramme

Loose

Lincoln

London

Louis

LONDON

Lincoln

Liverpool

Lucy

Lincoln

Liverpool

eMma

klm

Managing

Mary

Mother

Mary

MARY

Mary

Madagascar

Mary

Madagascar

lmn

Never

Newark

November

Nelly

New York

Nellie

New York

Owners

Ocean

October

Oliver

OLIVER

Ocean

Oslo

Oliver

Ocean

Oslo

Pip

nop

Play

Peter

PETER

Peter

Paris

Peter

Paris

Queen

Quaker

QUEBEC

Queen

Québec

Queen

Quebec

Remarks

Robert

ROBERT

Robert

Roma

Robert

Roma

eSses

qrs

Support

Sugar

Samuel

SAMUEL?

Sugar

Santiago

Samuel

Sugar

Santiago

Toc

rst

The

Texas

Thomas

Tripoli

Tommy

Thomas

Tripoli

Unless

Union

Uncle

Utah

Union

Upsala

Uncle

Union

Upsala

Vic

tuv

Vindictive

Violet

Victoria

Victor

VICTORY

Victor

Valencia

Victor

Victory

Valencia

When

William

Wednesday

William

WILLIAM

William

Washington

William

Washington

vwx

eXpeditely

X-Ray

Xmas

X-Ray

X-ray

Xanthippe

Xray

X-ray

Xanthippe

wxy

Your

Yale

Yellow

Young

Yokohama

Yellow

Young

Yokohama

xyz

Zigzag

X-Y-Z

Zero

Zebra

Zero

Zürich

Zebra

Zero

Zurich

Zero

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Comma

Fraction bar

Full stop

Radiotelephony spelling alphabets

During WWI

In World War I battle lines were relatively static and forces were commonly linked by wired telephones. Signals could be weak on long wire runs and field telephone systems often used a single wire with earth return, which made them subject to inadvertent and deliberate interference. Spelling alphabets were introduced for wire telephony as well as on the newer radio voice equipment.

Symbol	1915 British Army	1917 Royal Navy	1918 British Army
A	Ack	Apples	Ack
B	Beer	Butter	Beer
C		Charlie	Cork
D	Don	Duff	Don
E		Edward	Eddy
F		Freddy
G		George
H		Harry
I		Ink	Ink
J		Johnnie	Jug
K		King
L		London
M	eMma	Monkey	eMma
N		Nuts
O		Orange
P	Pip	Pudding	Pip
Q		Queenie	Quad
R		Robert
S	eSses	Sugar	eSses
T	Toc	Tommy	Talk
U		Uncle
V	Vic	Vinegar	Vic
W		Willie
X		Xerxes
Y		Yellow
Z		Zebra

Between WWI and WWII

Commercial and international telephone and radiotelephone spelling alphabets.

Symbol	1919 U.S. Air Service	1920 UECU Proposal	1927 International Radiotelegraph Convention	1930 ARRL List	1930 Bokstaveringstabell Televerket	1932 General Radiocommunication and Additional Regulations	1932 American Association of Railroads	1936 ARRL	1938 International Radiocommunication Conference code words
A	Able	Argentine	Amsterdam	Adams	Adam	Amsterdam	Adams	Able	Amsterdam
B	Boy	Brussels	Baltimore	Boston	Bertil	Baltimore	Boston	Boy	Baltimore
C	Cast	Canada	Canada	Chicago	Caesar	Casablanca	Chicago	Cast	Casablanca
D	Dock	Damascus	Denmark	Denver	David	Danemark	Denver	Dog	Danemark
E	Easy	Ecuador	Eddystone	Edward	Erik	Edison	Edward	Easy	Edison
F	Fox	France	Francisco	Frank	Filip	Florida	Frank	Fox	Florida
G	George	Greece	Gibraltar	George	Gustav	Gallipoli	George	George	Gallipoli
H	Have	Hanover	Hanover	Henry	Helge	Havana	Henry	Have	Havana
I	Item	Italy	Italy	Ida	Ivar	Italia	Ida	Item	Italia
J	Jig	Japan	Jerusalem	John	Johan	Jérusalem	John	Jig	Jérusalem
K	King	Khartoum	Kimberley	King	Kalle	Kilogramme	King	King	Kilogramme
L	Love	Lima	Liverpool	Lincoln	Ludvig	Liverpool	Lincoln	Love	Liverpool
M	Mike	Madrid	Madagascar	Mary	Martin	Madagascar	Mary	Mike	Madagascar
N	Nan	Nancy	Neufchatel	New York	Nicklas	New York	New York	Nan	New-York
O	Oble	Ostend	Ontario	Ocean	Olof	Oslo	Ocean	Oboe	Oslo
P	Pup	Paris	Portugal	Peter	Petter	Paris	Peter	Pup	Paris
Q	Quack	Quebec	Quebec	Queen	Quintus	Québec	Queen	Quack	Québec
R	Rush	Rome	Rivoli	Robert	Rudolf	Roma	Robert	Rot	Roma
S	Sail	Sardinia	Santiago	Sugar	Sigurd	Santiago	Sugar	Sail	Santiago
T	Tare	Tokio	Tokio	Thomas	Tore	Tripoli	Thomas	Tare	Tripoli
U	Unit	Uruguay	Uruguay	Union	Urban	Upsala	Union	Unit	Upsala
V	Vice	Victoria	Victoria	Victor	Viktor	Valencia	Victor	Vice	Valencia
W	Watch	Washington	Washington	William	Willhelm	Washington	William	Watch	Washington
X	X-ray	Xaintrie	Xantippe	X-Ray	Xerxes	Xanthippe	X-ray	X-ray	Xanthippe
Y	Yoke	Yokohama	Yokohama	Young	Yngve	Yokohama	Young	Yoke	Yokohama
Z	Zed	Zanzibar	Zululand	Zero	Zäta	Zürich	Zero	Zed	Zurich
Å					Åke
Ä					Ärlig
Ö					Östen

					Nolla				Zero
					Ett				One
					Tvåa				Two
					Trea				Three
					Fyra				Four
					Femma				Five
					Sexa				Six
					Sju				Seven
					Åtta				Eight
					Nia				Nine

During WWII

The later NATO phonetic alphabet evolved from the procedures of several different Allied nations during World War II, including:

The United States Navy
The United States Army
The United States Army Air Force
Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet
The British Royal Air Force phonetic alphabet

Post-WWII

For the 1938 and 1947 alphabets, each transmission of figures is preceded and followed by the words "as a number" spoken twice.
The ITU adopted the International Maritime Organization's phonetic spelling alphabet in 1959, and in 1969 specified that it be "for application in the maritime mobile service only".
During the late 1940s and early 1950s, there were two international aviation radio spelling alphabets, the "Able Baker" was used by most Western countries, while the "Ana Brazil" alphabet was used by South American and Caribbean regions.
Pronunciation was not defined prior to 1959. From 1959 to present, the underlined syllable of each code word for the letters should be stressed, and from 1969 to present, each syllable of the code words for the digits should be equally stressed, with the exceptions of the unstressed second syllables of fower, seven, niner, hundred.

ICAO Radiotelephone Spelling Alphabet

After WWII, the major work in producing a better spelling alphabet was conducted by the ICAO, which was subsequently adopted in modified form by the ITU and IMO. Its development is related to these various international conventions on radio, including:

Universal Electrical Communications Union, Washington, D.C., December 1920
International Radiotelegraph Convention, Washington, 1927
General Radiocommunication and Additional Regulations
Instructions for the International Telephone Service, 1932
The ARRL and 1928 Western Union alphabets likely originated earlier.
General Radiocommunication Regulations and Additional Radiocommunication Regulations
Radio Regulations and Additional Radio Regulations, where "it was decided that the International Civil Aviation Organization and other international aeronautical organizations would assume the responsibility for procedures and regulations related to aeronautical communication. However, ITU would continue to maintain general procedures regarding distress signals."
1959 Administrative Radio Conference
Final Acts of WARC-79. Here the alphabet was formally named "Phonetic Alphabet and Figure Code".
International Code of Signals for Visual, Sound, and Radio Communications, United States Edition, 1969
NATO phonetic alphabet history
International Telecommunication Union, Radio

The ICAO Radiotelephony Alphabet is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization for international aircraft communications.

Symbol	1932 ITU/ICAN	1951 IATA	1956–Present ICAO
A	Amsterdam	Alfa	Alfa
B	Baltimore	Bravo	Bravo
C	Casablanca	Coca	Charlie
D	Denmark	Delta	Delta
E	Edison	Echo	Echo
F	Florida	Foxtrot	Foxtrot
G	Gallipoli	Golf	Golf
H	Havana	Hotel	Hotel
I	Italia	India	India
J	Jerusalem	Juliett	Juliett
K	Kilogramme	Kilo	Kilo
L	Liverpool	Lima	Lima
M	Madagascar	Mike	Mike
N	New York	November	November
O	Oslo	Oscar	Oscar
P	Paris	Papa	Papa
Q	Quebec	Quebec	Quebec
R	Roma	Romeo	Romeo
S	Santiago	Sierra	Sierra
T	Tripoli	Tango	Tango
U	Upsala	Uniform	Uniform
V	Valencia	Victor	Victor
W	Washington	Whiskey	Whisky
X	Xanthippe	X-ray	X-ray
Y	Yokohama	Yankee	Yankee
Z	Zurich	Zulu	Zulu
1			One
2			Two
3			Tree
4			Fower
5			Fife
6			Six
7			Seven
8			Eight
9			Niner
0			Zero
-00			Hundred
-,000			Tousand
.			Decimal

Law enforcement

Defined by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International.
The APCO first suggested that its Procedure and Signals Committee work out a system for a "standard set of words representing the alphabet should be used by all stations" in its April 1940 newsletter.
Note: The old APCO alphabet has wide usage among Public Safety agencies nationwide, even though APCO itself deprecated the alphabet in 1974, replacing it with the ICAO spelling alphabet. See https://www.apcointl.org and APCO radiotelephony spelling alphabet.

Symbol	APCO Project 2 1967	APCO Project 14
A	Adam	ALPHA
B	Boy	BRAVO
C	Charles	CHARLIE
D	David	DELTA
E	Edward	ECHO
F	Frank	FOXTROT
G	George	GOLF
H	Henry	HOTEL
I	Ida	INDIA
J	John	JULIETTE
K	King	KILO
L	Lincoln	LIMA
M	Mary	MIKE
N	Nora	NOVEMBER
O	Ocean	OSCAR
P	Paul	PAPA
Q	Queen	QUEBEC
R	Robert	ROMEO
S	Sam	SIERRA
T	Tom	TANGO
U	Union	UNIFORM
V	Victor	VICTOR
W	William	WHISKEY
X	X-ray	XRAY
Y	Young	YANKEE
Z	Zebra	ZULU
0	ZERO
1	WUN
2	TOO
3	TH-R-EE
4	FO-WER
6	SIKS
7	SEV-VEN
8	ATE
9	NI-YEN

Amateur radio

The FCC regulations for Amateur radio state that "Use of a phonetic alphabet as an aid for correct station identification is encouraged" ), but does not state which set of words should be used. Officially the same as used by ICAO, but there are significant variations commonly used by stations participating in HF contests and DX.
The official ARRL alphabet changed over the years, sometimes to reflect the current norms, and sometimes by the force of law. In rules made effective beginning April 1, 1946, the FCC forbade using the names of cities, states, or countries in spelling alphabets.

Symbol	1930 ARRL List	1936–1946 ARRL	1946–1969 ARRL	1970–present ARRL	DX	DX alternate
A	Adams	Able	ADAM	Alpha	America	Amsterdam
B	Boston	Boy	BAKER	Bravo	Boston	Baltimore
C	Chicago	Cast	CHARLIE	Charlie	Canada	Chile
D	Denver	Dog	DAVID	Delta	Denmark
E	Edward	Easy	EDWARD	Echo	England	Egypt
F	Frank	Fox	FRANK	Foxtrot	France	Finland
G	George	George	GEORGE	Golf	Germany	Geneva
H	Henry	Have	HENRY	Hotel	Honolulu	Hawaii
I	Ida	Item	IDA	India	Italy	Italy
J	John	Jig	JOHN	Juliett	Japan
K	King	King	KING	Kilo	Kilowatt	Kentucky
L	Lincoln	Love	LEWIS	Lima	London	Luxembourg
M	Mary	Mike	MARY	Mike	Mexico	Montreal
N	New York	Nan	NANCY	November	Norway	Nicaragua
O	Ocean	Oboe	OTTO	Oscar	Ontario	Ocean
P	Peter	Pup	PETER	Papa	Pacific	Portugal
Q	Queen	Quack	QUEEN	Quebec	Quebec	Queen
R	Robert	Rot	ROBERT	Romeo	Radio	Romania
S	Sugar	Sail	SUSAN	Sierra	Santiago	Sweden
T	Thomas	Tare	THOMAS	Tango	Tokyo	Texas
U	Union	Unit	UNION	Uniform	United	Uruguay
V	Victor	Vice	VICTOR	Victor	Victoria	Venezuela
W	William	Watch	WILLIAM	Whiskey	Washington
X	X-Ray	X-ray	X-RAY	X-ray	X-Ray
Y	Young	Yoke	YOUNG	Yankee	Yokohama
Z	Zero	Zed	ZEBRA	Zulu	Zanzibar	Zulu
1			One
2			Two
3			Tree
4			Fower
5			Fife
6			Six
7			Seven
8			Eight
9			Niner
0			Zero
.			Stop
.			Decimal

Additions in other languages

Certain languages' standard alphabets have letters, or letters with diacritics, that do not exist in the English alphabet. If these letters have two-letter ASCII substitutes, the ICAO/ITU code words for the two letters are used.

Danish and Norwegian

In Danish and Norwegian the letters "æ", "ø" and "å" have their own code words. In Danish Ægir, Ødis and Åse represent the three letters, while in Norwegian the three code words are Ægir, Ørnulf and Ågot for civilians and Ærlig, Østen and Åse for military personnel.

Estonian

Estonian has four special letters, õ, ä, ö and ü. Õnne represents õ, Ärni for ä, Ööbik for ö and Ülle for ü.

Finnish

In Finnish there are special code words for the letters å, ä and ö. Åke is used to represent å, Äiti is used for ä and Öljy for ö. These code words are used only in national operations, the last remnants of the Finnish radio alphabet.

German

In German, Alfa-Echo may be used for "ä", Oscar-Echo for "ö", Sierra-Sierra for "ß", and Uniform-Echo for "ü".

Greek

The Greek spelling alphabet is a spelling alphabet for the Greek language, i.e. a set of names used in lieu of alphabet letters for the purpose of spelling out words. It is used by the Greek armed and emergency services.

Malay

Malay represents the letter "L" with "London", since the word lima means "five" in this language.

Russian

The Russian spelling alphabet is a spelling alphabet for the Russian version of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Spanish

In Spanish the word ñoño is used for ñ.

Swedish

Åke is used for "å" Ärlig for "ä" and Östen for "ö" in the Swedish spelling alphabet, though the two-letter substitutes aa, ae and oe respectively may be used in absence of the specific letters.

Table of spelling alphabets by language

Other alphabets

The PGP word list, the Bubble Babble wordlist used by ssh-keygen, and the S/KEY dictionary, are spelling alphabets for public key fingerprints - a set of names given to data bytes for the purpose of spelling out binary data in a clear and unambiguous way via a voice channel.
Many unofficial spelling alphabets are in use that are not based on a standard, but are based on words the transmitter can remember easily, including first names, states, or cities. The LAPD phonetic alphabet has many first names. The German spelling alphabet also uses first names. Also, during the Vietnam war, soldiers used 'Cain' instead of 'Charlie' because 'Charlie' meant Viet Cong.