Culture.Mil - Phonetic Alphabet

Written by Jenifer Chrisman on April 4, 2016.

The phonetic alphabet, or spelling alphabet, has been used consistently by the military since as early as 1913. Located in the Signals section of The Bluejackets’ Manual, it was paired with Alphabetical Code Flags, or Signal Flags, used by the Navy. The names (making up the phonetic alphabet) and the meanings of each flag (the letter they represent) were selected and defined by international agreement.

Today, the United States armed forces use the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) alphabet. The alphabet is used to identify the letters in encrypted messages or those transmitted by radio or telephone.

Developed to clarify verbal communication, which is fraught with many similar sounding letters (ex: B, D, E, P, T) and auditorily challenging conditions, the individual words had to meet certain criteria. Each word had to be both short and phonetically distinct. They also needed to be words non-English speaking people could speak and understand, as well as having limited pronunciation differences from language to language. For languages with specialized lettering, such as the German’s ä, ö, and ü, language specific versions of the phonetic alphabet have been created.

Since 1913, the alphabet has changed several times throughout the years. During World War II a Joint Army/Navy alphabet was created to simplify inter-branch communication. The ICAO alphabet, used by the US military, NATO countries and civil aviation around the world, was developed in the 1950s and officially adopted in 1957.

The phonetic alphabet is, and has been, an integral part of the military, but many people the world over use it to one degree or another. It has saved misunderstanding and misinterpretation time and again and will continue to do so for years to come.

MILITARY PHONETIC ALPHABET

Letter	1913	1927	1938	Joint Army/Navy (1941-1956)	1957-Present	Pronunciation
A	Able	Affirmative	Affirm	Able	Alfa (or Alpha)	AL fah
B	Boy	Baker	Baker	Baker	Bravo	BRAH voh
C	Cast	Cast	Cast	Charlie	Charlie	CHAR lee
D	Dog	Dog	Dog	Dog	Delta	DEL tah
E	Easy	Easy	Easy	Easy	Echo	EKK oh
F	Fox	Fox	Fox	Fox	Foxtrot	FOKS trot
G	George	George	George	George	Golf	Golf
H	Have	Hypo	Hypo	How	Hotel	HO tell
I	Item	Interrogatory	Int	Item	India	IN dee ah
J	Jig	Jig	Jig	Jig	Juliett	JEW lee ett
K	King	King	King	King	Kilo	KEY loh
L	Love	Love	Love	Love	Lima	LEE mah
M	Mike	Mike	Mike	Mike	Mike	Mike
N	Nan	Negative	Negat	Nan	November	NOH vem ber
O	Oboe	Option	Option	Oboe	Oscar	OSS car
P	Pup	Preparatory	Prep	Peter	Papa	PAH pah
Q	Quack	Quack	Queen	Queen	Quebec	keh BECK
R	Rush	Roger	Roger	Roger	Romeo	ROW me oh
S	Sail	Sail	Sail	Sugar	Sierra	see AIR ah
T	Tare	Tare	Tare	Tare	Tango	TANG go
U	Unit	Unit	Unit	Uncle	Uniform	YOU nee form
V	Vice	Vice	Victor	Victor	Victor	VIK ter
W	Watch	William	William	William	Whiskey	WISS key
X	X-ray	X-ray	X-ray	X-ray	X-ray	EKS ray
Y	Yoke	Yoke	Yoke	Yoke	Yankee	YANG kee
Z	Zed	Zed	Zed	Zebra	Zulu	ZOO loo