NATO phonetic alphabet

Not to be confused with International Phonetic Alphabet or Phoenician alphabet.

FAA radiotelephony alphabet and Morse code chart

The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet, NATO spelling alphabet, ICAO phonetic alphabet or ICAO spelling alphabet, is the most widely used radiotelephone spelling alphabet. The ITU phonetic alphabet and figure code is a rarely used variant that differs in the code words for digits.

To create the code, a series of international agencies assigned 26 code words acrophonically to the letters of the English alphabet, so that the names for letters and numbers would be distinct enough to be easily understood by those who exchanged voice messages by radio or telephone, regardless of language differences or the quality of the connection. The specific code words varied, as some seemingly distinct words were found to be ineffective in real-life conditions. In 1956, NATO modified the then-current set of code words used by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO); this modification then became the international standard when it was accepted by the ICAO that year and by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) a few years later. The words were chosen to be accessible to speakers of French and Spanish in addition to English; the spellings of a couple of code words were changed to facilitate their use.

Spelling alphabets are often inaccurately called "phonetic alphabets", but they do not indicate phonetics and cannot function as phonetic transcription systems like the International Phonetic Alphabet.

The 26 code words are as follows: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. Numbers are read off as English digits, but the pronunciations of three, four, five, nine and thousand are modified.

Strict adherence to the prescribed spellings—including the apparently misspelled "Alfa" and "Juliett"—is required in order to avoid the problems of confusion that the code is designed to overcome. A 1955 NATO memo stated that:

It is known that [the spelling alphabet] has been prepared only after the most exhaustive tests on a scientific basis by several nations. One of the firmest conclusions reached was that it was not practical to make an isolated change to clear confusion between one pair of letters. To change one word involves reconsideration of the whole alphabet to ensure that the change proposed to clear one confusion does not itself introduce others.

International adoption

After the phonetic alphabet was developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) (see history below) it was adopted by many other international and national organizations, including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United States Federal Government as Federal Standard 1037C: Glossary of Telecommunications Terms, and its successors ANSI T1.523-2001 and ATIS Telecom Glossary (ATIS-0100523.2019), (using the English spellings "Alpha" and "Juliet"), the United States Department of Defense (using standard spellings), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO); and by many military organizations such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the now-defunct Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO).

The same alphabetic code words are used by all agencies, but each agency chooses one of two different sets of numeric code words. NATO uses the regular English numeric words (Zero, One, with some alternative pronunciations), whereas the ITU (beginning on 1 April 1969) and the IMO define compound numeric words (Nadazero, Unaone, Bissotwo…). In practice these are used very rarely, as they frequently result in confusion between speakers of different languages.

Usage

A spelling alphabet is used to spell parts of a message containing letters and numbers to avoid confusion, because many letters sound similar, for instance "n" and "m" or "f" and "s"; the potential for confusion increases if static or other interference is present. For instance the message "proceed to map grid DH98" could be transmitted as "proceed to map grid Delta-Hotel-Niner-Ait". Using "Delta" instead of "D" avoids confusion between "DH98" and "BH98" or "TH98". The unusual pronunciation of certain numbers was designed to reduce confusion as well.

In addition to the traditional military usage, civilian industry uses the alphabet to avoid similar problems in the transmission of messages by telephone systems. For example, it is often used in the retail industry where customer or site details are spoken by telephone (to authorize a credit agreement or confirm stock codes), although ad-hoc coding is often used in that instance. It has been used often by information technology workers to communicate serial or reference codes (which are often very long) or other specialised information by voice. Most major airlines use the alphabet to communicate passenger name records (PNRs) internally, and in some cases, with customers. It is often used in a medical context as well, to avoid confusion when transmitting information.

Several letter codes and abbreviations using the spelling alphabet have become well-known, such as Bravo Zulu (letter code BZ) for "well done", Checkpoint Charlie (Checkpoint C) in Berlin, and Zulu Time for Greenwich Mean Time or Coordinated Universal Time. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. government referred to the Viet Cong guerrillas and the group itself as VC, or Victor Charlie; the name "Charlie" became synonymous with this force.

Pronunciation of code words

The final choice of code words for the letters of the alphabet and for the digits was made after hundreds of thousands of comprehension tests involving 31 nationalities. The qualifying feature was the likelihood of a code word being understood in the context of others. For example, football has a higher chance of being understood than foxtrot in isolation, but foxtrot is superior in extended communication.

The pronunciation of the code words varies according to the language habits of the speaker. To eliminate wide variations in pronunciation, recordings and posters illustrating the pronunciation desired by the ICAO are available. However, there are still differences in pronunciation between the ICAO and other agencies, and the ICAO has conflicting Latin-alphabet and International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions. Also, although all codes for the letters of the alphabet are English words, they are not in general given English pronunciations.

Pronunciations are somewhat uncertain because the agencies, while ostensibly using the same pronunciations, give different transcriptions, which are often inconsistent from letter to letter. The ICAO gives a different pronunciation for IPA transcription and for respelling, and the FAA also gives different pronunciations depending on the publication consulted, the FAA Aeronautical Information Manual (§ 4-2-7), the FAA Flight Services manual (§ 14.1.5), or the ATC manual (§ 2-4-16). The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) gives English spellings, but does not give pronunciations or numbers. The ICAO, NATO, and FAA use modifications of English numerals, with stress on one syllable, while the ITU and IMO compound pseudo-Latinate numerals with a slightly different set of modified English numerals, and with stress on each syllable. Numbers 10–99 are spelled out (that is, 17 is spoken "one seven" and 60 is spoken "six zero"), while for hundreds and thousands the English words hundred and thousand are used.

The pronunciation of the digits 3, 4, 5, and 9 differs from standard English – being pronounced tree, fower, fife, and niner. The digit 3 is specified as tree so that it is not pronounced sri; the long pronunciation of 4 (still found in some English dialects) keeps it somewhat distinct from for; 5 is pronounced with a second "f" because the normal pronunciation with a "v" is easily confused with "fire" (a command to shoot); and 9 has an extra syllable to keep it distinct from German nein 'no'.

Only the ICAO prescribes pronunciation with the IPA, and then only for letters. Several of the pronunciations indicated are slightly modified from their normal English pronunciations, partially due to the substitution of final schwas with the [ɑ] vowel. Both the IPA and respelled pronunciations were developed by the ICAO before 1956 with advice from the governments of both the United States and United Kingdom.

In addition, the ITU and IMO specify a different set of numeral words than does the ICAO. The ITU/IMO words are compounds combining the English numeral with either a Spanish or Latin prefix. However, as of 2002, the IMO's GMDSS procedures permit the use of the ICAO numeral pronunciation.

Pronunciation Conflicts

Symbol	Code word	ICAO 2008 in IPA	ICAO 2008 respelling	ITU-R 2007 (WRC-07) respelling	IMO English respelling (French)	FAA respelling (with stress)	SIA (France aeronautical)	1957 U.S. Navy respelling	NATO & U.S. Army respelling
A	Alfa	ˈælfa	AL FAH		AL FAH (AL FAH)	ALFAH	al fah	AL fåh	AL fah
B	Bravo	ˈbraːˈvo	BRAH VOH		BRAH VOH (BRA VO)	BRAHVOH	bra vo	BRÄH VŌH	BRAH voh
C	Charlie	ˈtʃɑːli or ˈʃɑːli	CHAR LEE or SHAR LEE		CHAR LEE (or SHAR LEE) TCHAH LI (ou CHAR LI)	CHARLEE	tchah li, char li	CHÄR LĒĔ	CHAR lee
D	Delta	ˈdeltɑ	DELL TAH		DELL TAH (DEL TAH)	DELLTAH	del tah	DĔLL tåh	DEL tah
E	Echo	ˈeko	ECK OH		ECK OH (EK O)	ECKOH	èk o	ĔCK ōh	EKK oh
F	Foxtrot	ˈfɔkstrɔt	FOKS TROT		FOKS TROT FOX TROTT	FOKSTROT	fox trott	FŎKS trŏt	FOKS trot
G	Golf	ɡʌlf	GOLF		GOLF (GOLF)	GOLF	golf	GŎLF	Golf
H	Hotel	hoːˈtel	HO TELL	HOH TELL	HOH TELL (HO TÈLL)	HOHTELL	ho tèll	hōh TĔLL	HO tell
I	India	ˈindi.ɑ	IN DEE AH		IN DEE AH (IN DI AH)	INDEE AH	in di ah	ÏN dēē åh	IN dee ah
J	Juliett	ˈdʒuːli.ˈet	JEW LEE ETT		JEW LEE ETT (DJOU LI ÈTT)	JEWLEE ETT	djou li ètt	JEW lēē ĔTT	JEW lee ett
K	Kilo	ˈkiːlo	KEY LOH		KEY LOH (KI LO)	KEYLOH	ki lo	KĒY lōh	KEY loh
L	Lima	ˈliːmɑ	LEE MAH		LEE MAH (LI MAH)	LEEMAH	li mah	LĒĒ måh	LEE mah
M	Mike	mɑik	MIKE		MIKE (MA ÏK)	MIKE	maïk	MĪKE	Mike
N	November	noˈvembə	NO VEM BER		NO VEM BER (NO VÈMM BER)	NOVEMBER	no vèmm ber	nō VĔM bēr	NOH vem ber
O	Oscar	ˈɔskɑ	OSS CAH		OSS CAH (OSS KAR)	OSSCAH	oss kar	ŎSS cåh	OSS car
P	Papa	pəˈpɑ	PAH PAH		PAH PAH (PAH PAH)	PAHPAH	pah pah	påh PÄH	PAH pah
Q	Quebec	keˈbek	KEH BECK		KEH BECK (KÉ BÈK)	KEHBECK	ké bèk	kēh BĒCK	keh BECK
R	Romeo	ˈroːmi.o	ROW ME OH		ROW ME OH (RO MI O)	ROWME OH	ro mi o	ROW mē ōh	ROW me oh
S	Sierra	siˈerɑ	SEE AIR RAH		SEE AIR RAH (SI ÈR RAH)	SEEAIRAH	si èr rah	sēē ÄIRråh	see AIR ah
T	Tango	ˈtænɡo	TANG GO		TANG GO (TANG GO)	TANGGO	tang go	TĂNG gō	TANG go
U	Uniform	ˈjuːnifɔːm or ˈuːnifɔrm	YOU NEE FORM or OO NEE FORM		YOU NEE FORM (or OO NEE FORM) YOU NI FORM (ou OU NI FORM)	YOUNEE FORM (or OO-NEE-FORM)	you ni form, ou ni form	YOU nēē fôrm	YOU nee form
V	Victor	ˈviktɑ	VIK TAH		VIK TAH (VIK TAR)	VIKTAH	vik tar	VĬK tåh	VIK ter
W	Whiskey	ˈwiski	WISS KEY		WISS KEY (OUISS KI)	WISSKEY	ouiss ki	WĬSS kēy	WISS key
X	X-ray	ˈeksˈrei	ECKS RAY	ECKS RAY	ECKS RAY (ÈKSS RÉ)	ECKSRAY	èkss ré	ĔCKS rāy	EKS ray
Y	Yankee	ˈjænki	YANG KEY		YANG KEY (YANG KI)	YANGKEY	yang ki	YĂNG KĒY	YANG kee
Z	Zulu	ˈzuːluː	ZOO LOO		ZOO LOO (ZOU LOU)	ZOOLOO	zou lou	ZŌŌ lōō	ZOO luu
0	Zero, nadazero		ZE-RO	NAH-DAH-ZAY-ROH	NAH-DAH-ZAY-ROH (NA-DA-ZE-RO)	ZE-RO / ZEE-RO	zi ro	Zero	ZE-RO
1	One, unaone		WUN	OO-NAH-WUN	OO-NAH-WUN (OUNA-OUANN)	WUN	ouann	Wun	WUN Won (USMC)
2	Two, bissotwo		TOO	BEES-SOH-TOO	BEES-SOH-TOO (BIS-SO-TOU)	TOO	tou	Too	TOO
3	Three, terrathree		TREE	TAY-RAH-TREE	TAY-RAH-TREE (TÉ-RA-TRI)	TREE	tri	Thuh-ree	TREE
4	Four, kartefour		FOW-er	KAR-TAY-FOWER	KAR-TAY-FOWER (KAR-TÉ-FO-EUR)	FOW-ER	fo eur	Fo-wer	FOW-ER
5	Five, pantafive		FIFE	PAN-TAH-FIVE	PAN-TAH-FIVE (PANN-TA-FAIF)	FIFE	fa ïf	Fi-yiv	FIFE
6	Six, soxisix		SIX	SOK-SEE-SIX	SOK-SEE-SIX (SO-XI-SICKS)	SIX	siks	Six	SIX
7	Seven, setteseven		SEV-en	SAY-TAY-SEVEN	SAY-TAY-SEVEN (SÉT-TÉ-SEV'N)	SEV-EN	sèv n	Seven	SEV-EN
8	Eight, oktoeight		AIT	OK-TOH-AIT	OK-TOH-AIT (OK-TO-EIT)	AIT	eït	Ate	AIT
9	Nine, novenine		NIN-er	NO-VAY-NINER	NO-VAY-NINER (NO-VÉ-NAI-NEU)	NIN-ER	naï neu	Niner	NIN-ER
. (decimal point)	Decimal, (FAA) point		DAY-SEE-MAL		DAY-SEE-MAL (DÉ-SI-MAL)	(point)	dè si mal
00	Hundred		HUN-dred			(hundred)	hun-dred	Hun-dred
000	Thousand		TOU-SAND			(thousand)	taou zend	Thow-zand	TOU-SAND
. (full stop)	Stop			STOP	STOP (STOP)

History

Prior to World War I and the development and widespread adoption of two-way radio that supported voice, telephone spelling alphabets were developed to improve communication on low-quality and long-distance telephone circuits.

The first non-military internationally recognized spelling alphabet was adopted by the CCIR (predecessor of the ITU) during 1927. The experience gained with that alphabet resulted in several changes being made during 1932 by the ITU. The resulting alphabet was adopted by the International Commission for Air Navigation, the predecessor of the ICAO, and was used for civil aviation until World War II. It continued to be used by the IMO until 1965.

Throughout World War II, many nations used their own versions of a spelling alphabet. The U.S. adopted the Joint Army/Navy radiotelephony alphabet during 1941 to standardize systems among all branches of its armed forces. The U.S. alphabet became known as Able Baker after the words for A and B. The Royal Air Force adopted one similar to the United States one during World War II as well. Other British forces adopted the RAF radio alphabet, which is similar to the phonetic alphabet used by the Royal Navy during World War I. At least two of the terms are sometimes still used by UK civilians to spell words over the phone, namely F for Freddie and S for Sugar.

To enable the U.S., UK, and Australian armed forces to communicate during joint operations, in 1943 the CCB (Combined Communications Board; the combination of US and UK upper military commands) modified the U.S. military's Joint Army/Navy alphabet for use by all three nations, with the result being called the US-UK spelling alphabet. It was defined in one or more of CCBP-1: Combined Amphibious Communications Instructions, CCBP3: Combined Radiotelephone (R/T) Procedure, and CCBP-7: Combined Communication Instructions. The CCB alphabet itself was based on the U.S. Joint Army/Navy spelling alphabet. The CCBP (Combined Communications Board Publications) documents contain material formerly published in U.S. Army Field Manuals in the 24-series. Several of these documents had revisions, and were renamed. For instance, CCBP3-2 was the second edition of CCBP3.

During World War II, the U.S. military conducted significant research into spelling alphabets. Major F. D. Handy, directorate of Communications in the Army Air Force (and a member of the working committee of the Combined Communications Board), enlisted the help of Harvard University's Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory, asking them to determine the most successful word for each letter when using "military interphones in the intense noise encountered in modern warfare.". He included lists from the US, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, British Army, AT&T, Western Union, RCA Communications, and that of the International Telecommunications Convention. According to a report on the subject:

The results showed that many of the words in the military lists had a low level of intelligibility, but that most of the deficiencies could be remedied by the judicious selection of words from the commercial codes and those tested by the laboratory. In a few instances where none of the 250 words could be regarded as especially satisfactory, it was believed possible to discover suitable replacements. Other words were tested and the most intelligible ones were compared with the more desirable lists. A final NDRC list was assembled and recommended to the CCB.

After World War II, with many aircraft and ground personnel from the allied armed forces, "Able Baker" was officially adopted for use in international aviation. During the 1946 Second Session of the ICAO Communications Division, the organization adopted the so-called "Able Baker" alphabet that was the 1943 US–UK spelling alphabet. But many sounds were unique to English, so an alternative "Ana Brazil" alphabet was used in Latin America. But the International Air Transport Association (IATA), recognizing the need for a single universal alphabet, presented a draft alphabet to the ICAO during 1947 that had sounds common to English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

From 1948 to 1949, Jean-Paul Vinay, a professor of linguistics at the Université de Montréal worked closely with the ICAO to research and develop a new spelling alphabet. ICAO's directions to him were that "To be considered, a word must:

1. Be a live word in each of the three working languages.
2. Be easily pronounced and recognized by airmen of all languages.
3. Have good radio transmission and readability characteristics.
4. Have a similar spelling in at least English, French, and Spanish, and the initial letter must be the letter the word identifies.
5. Be free from any association with objectionable meanings."

After further study and modification by each approving body, the revised alphabet was adopted on 1 November 1951, to become effective on 1 April 1952 for civil aviation (but it may not have been adopted by any military).

Problems were soon found with this list. Some users believed that they were so severe that they reverted to the old "Able Baker" alphabet. Confusion among words like Delta and Extra, and between Nectar and Victor, or the unintelligibility of other words during poor receiving conditions were the main problems. Later in 1952, ICAO decided to revisit the alphabet and their research. To identify the deficiencies of the new alphabet, testing was conducted among speakers from 31 nations, principally by the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States. In the United States, the research was conducted by the USAF-directed Operational Applications Laboratory (AFCRC, ARDC), to monitor a project with the Research Foundation of The Ohio State University. Among the more interesting of the research findings was that "higher noise levels do not create confusion, but do intensify those confusions already inherent between the words in question".

By early 1956 the ICAO was nearly complete with this research, and published the new official phonetic alphabet in order to account for discrepancies that might arise in communications as a result of multiple alphabet naming systems coexisting in different places and organizations. NATO was in the process of adopting the ICAO spelling alphabet, and apparently felt enough urgency that it adopted the proposed new alphabet with changes based on NATO's own research, to become effective on 1 January 1956, but quickly issued a new directive on 1 March 1956 adopting the now official ICAO spelling alphabet, which had changed by one word (November) from NATO's earlier request to ICAO to modify a few words based on U.S. Air Force research.

After all of the above study, only the five words representing the letters C, M, N, U, and X were replaced. The ICAO sent a recording of the new Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet to all member states in November 1955. The final version given in the table above was implemented by the ICAO on 1 March 1956, and the ITU adopted it no later than 1959 when they mandated its usage via their official publication, Radio Regulations. Because the ITU governs all international radio communications, it was also adopted by most radio operators, whether military, civilian, or amateur. It was finally adopted by the IMO in 1965.

During 1947 the ITU adopted the compound Latinate prefix-number words (Nadazero, Unaone, etc.), later adopted by the IMO during 1965.

• Nadazero - from Spanish or Portuguese nada + NATO/ICAO zero
• Unaone - generic Romance una, from Latin ūna + NATO/ICAO one
• Bissotwo - from Latin bis + NATO/ICAO two. (1959 ITU proposals bis and too)
• Terrathree - from Italian terzo + NATO/ICAO three ("tree") (1959 ITU proposals ter and tree)
• Kartefour - from French quatre (Latin quartus) + NATO/ICAO four ("fow-er") (1959 ITU proposals quarto and fow-er)
• Pantafive - from French penta- + NATO/ICAO five ("fife") (From 1959 ITU proposals penta and fife)
• Soxisix - from French soix + NATO/ICAO six (1959 ITU proposals were saxo and six)
• Setteseven - from Italian sette + NATO/ICAO seven (1959 ITU proposals sette and sev-en)
• Oktoeight - generic Romance octo-, from Latin octō + NATO/ICAO eight (1959 ITU proposals octo and ait)
• Novenine - from Italian nove + NATO/ICAO nine ("niner") (1959 ITU proposals were nona and niner)

In the official version of the alphabet, the non-English spellings Alfa and Juliett are used. Alfa is spelled with an f as it is in most European languages because the English and French spelling alpha would not be pronounced properly by native speakers of some other languages – who may not know that ph should be pronounced as f. Juliett is spelled with a tt for French speakers, because they may otherwise treat a single final t as silent. Some published versions use the English spellings "Alpha" and "Juliet" – presumably because of the use of spell checker software.

Defined by various international conventions on radio, including:

• Universal Electrical Communications Union (UECU), Washington, D.C., December 1920
• International Radiotelegraph Convention, Washington, 1927 (which created the CCIR)
• General Radiocommunication and Additional Regulations (Madrid, 1932)
• Instructions for the International Telephone Service, 1932 (ITU-T E.141; withdrawn in 1993)
• General Radiocommunication Regulations and Additional Radiocommunication Regulations (Cairo, 1938)
• Radio Regulations and Additional Radio Regulations (Atlantic City, 1947), 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 (Geneva, 1959)
• International Telecommunication Union, Radio
• Final Acts of WARC-79 (Geneva, 1979). 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 (Revised 2003)

Tables

Timeline in development of the ICAO/ITU-R radiotelephony spelling alphabet

Letter	1920 UECU	1927 (Washington, D.C.) International Radiotelegraph Convention (CCIR)	1932 General Radiocommunication and Additional Regulations (CCIR/ICAN)	1938 (Cairo) International Radiocommunication Conference code words	1947 (Atlantic City) International Radio Conference	1947 ICAO (from 1943 US–UK)	1947 ICAO alphabet (from ARRL)	1947 ICAO Latin America/Caribbean	1947 IATA proposal to ICAO	1949 ICAO code words	1951 ICAO code words	1956 ICAO final code words	1959 (Geneva) ITU Administrative Radio Conference code words	1959 ITU respelling	2008 – present ICAO code words	2008 – present ICAO respelling
A	Argentine	Amsterdam	Amsterdam	Amsterdam	Amsterdam	ABLE	ADAM	ANA	ALFA	Alfa	Alfa	Alfa	Alfa	AL FAH	Alfa	AL FAH
B	Brussels	Baltimore	Baltimore	Baltimore	Baltimore	BAKER	BAKER	BRAZIL	BETA	Beta	Bravo	Bravo	Bravo	BRAH VOH	Bravo	BRAH VOH
C	Canada	Canada	Casablanca	Casablanca	Casablanca	CHARLIE	CHARLIE	COCO	CHARLIE	Coca	Coca	Charlie	Charlie	CHAR LEE or SHAR LEE	Charlie	CHAR LEE or SHAR LEE
D	Damascus	Denmark	Danemark	Danemark	Danemark	DOG	DAVID	DADO	DELTA	Delta	Delta	Delta	Delta	DELL TAH	Delta	DELL TAH
E	Ecuador	Eddystone	Edison	Edison	Edison	EASY	EDWARD	ELSA	EDWARD	Echo	Echo	Echo	Echo	ECK OH	Echo	ECK OH
F	France	Francisco	Florida	Florida	Florida	FOX	FREDDIE	FIESTA	FOX	Foxtrot	Foxtrot	Foxtrot	Foxtrot	FOKS TROT	Foxtrot	FOKS TROT
G	Greece	Gibraltar	Gallipoli	Gallipoli	Gallipoli	GEORGE	GEORGE	GATO	GRAMMA	Golf	Gold	Golf	Golf	GOLF	Golf	GOLF
H	Hanover	Hanover	Havana	Havana	Havana	HOW	HARRY	HOMBRE	HAVANA	Hotel	Hotel	Hotel	Hotel	HOH TELL	Hotel	HO TELL
I	Italy	Italy	Italia	Italia	Italia	ITEM	IDA	INDIA	ITALY	India	India	India	India	IN DEE AH	India	IN DEE AH
J	Japan	Jerusalem	Jérusalem	Jérusalem	Jerusalem	JIG	JOHN	JULIO	JUPITER	Julietta	Juliett	Juliett	Juliett	JEW LEE ETT	Juliett	JEW LEE ETT
K	Khartoum	Kimberley	Kilogramme	Kilogramme	Kilogramme	KING	KING	KILO	KILO	Kilo	Kilo	Kilo	Kilo	KEY LOH	Kilo	KEY LOH
L	Lima	Liverpool	Liverpool	Liverpool	Liverpool	LOVE	LEWIS	LUIS	LITER	Lima	Lima	Lima	Lima	LEE MAH	Lima	LEE MAH
M	Madrid	Madagascar	Madagascar	Madagascar	Madagascar	MIKE	MARY	MAMA	MAESTRO	Metro	Metro	Mike	Mike	MIKE	Mike	MIKE
N	Nancy	Neufchatel	New York	New-York	New York	NAN	NANCY	NORMA	NORMA	Nectar	Nectar	November	November	NO VEM BER	November	NO VEM BER
O	Ostend	Ontario	Oslo	Oslo	Oslo	OBOE	OTTO	OPERA	OPERA	Oscar	Oscar	Oscar	Oscar	OSS CAH	Oscar	OSS CAH
P	Paris	Portugal	Paris	Paris	Paris	PETER	PETER	PERU	PERU	Polka	Papa	Papa	Papa	PAH PAH	Papa	PAH PAH
Q	Quebec	Quebec	Québec	Québec	Quebec	QUEEN	QUEEN	QUEBEC	QUEBEC	Quebec	Quebec	Quebec	Quebec	KEH BECK	Quebec	KEH BECK
R	Rome	Rivoli	Roma	Roma	Roma	ROGER	ROBERT	ROSA	ROGER	Romeo	Romeo	Romeo	Romeo	ROW ME OH	Romeo	ROW ME OH
S	Sardinia	Santiago	Santiago	Santiago	Santiago	SUGAR	SUSAN	SARA	SANTA	Sierra	Sierra	Sierra	Sierra	SEE AIR RAH	Sierra	SEE AIR RAH
T	Tokio	Tokio	Tripoli	Tripoli	Tripoli	TARE	THOMAS	TOMAS	THOMAS	Tango	Tango	Tango	Tango	TANG GO	Tango	TANG GO
U	Uruguay	Uruguay	Upsala	Upsala	Upsala	UNCLE	UNION	URUGUAY	URSULA	Union	Union	Uniform	Uniform	YOU NEE FORM or OO NEE FORM	Uniform	YOU NEE FORM or OO NEE FORM
V	Victoria	Victoria	Valencia	Valencia	Valencia	VICTOR	VICTOR	VICTOR	VICTOR	Victor	Victor	Victor	Victor	VIK TAH	Victor	VIK TAH
W	Washington	Washington	Washington	Washington	Washington	WILLIAM	WILLIAM	WHISKEY	WHISKEY	Whiskey	Whiskey	Whiskey	Whiskey	WISS KEY	Whiskey	WISS KEY
X	Xaintrie	Xantippe	Xanthippe	Xanthippe	Xanthippe	XRAY	X-RAY	EQUIS	X-RAY	?	eXtra	X-ray	X-ray	ECKS RAY	X-ray	ECKS RAY
Y	Yokohama	Yokohama	Yokohama	Yokohama	Yokohama	YOKE	YOUNG	YOLANDA	YORK	Yankey	Yankee	Yankee	Yankee	YANG KEY	Yankee	YANG KEY
Z	Zanzibar	Zululand	Zürich	Zurich	Zurich	ZEBRA	ZEBRA	ZETA	?	Zebra	Zulu	Zulu	Zulu	ZOO LOO	Zulu	ZOO LOO
0				Jérusalem	Jerusalem	Zero							Juliett	(alt. proposals: ZE-RO, ZERO)	zero	ZE-RO
1				Amsterdam	Amsterdam	Wun							Alfa	(alt. proposals: WUN, WUN)	one	WUN
2				Baltimore	Baltimore	Too							Bravo	(alt. proposals: TOO, BIS)	two	TOO
3				Casablanca	Casablanca	Thuh-ree							Charlie	(alt. proposals: TREE, TER)	three	TREE
4				Danemark	Danemark	Fo-wer							Delta	(alt. proposals: FOW-ER, QUARTO)	four	FOW-er
5				Edison	Edison	Fi-yiv							Echo	(alt. proposals: FIFE, PENTA)	five	FIFE
6				Florida	Florida	Six							Foxtrot	(alt. proposals: SIX, SAXO)	six	SIX
7				Gallipoli	Gallipoli	Seven							Golf	(alt. proposals: SEV-EN, SETTE)	seven	SEV-en
8				Havana	Havana	Ate							Hotel	(alt. proposals: AIT, OCTO)	eight	AIT
9				Italia	Italia	Niner							India	(alt. proposals: NIN-ER, NONA)	nine	NIN-er
. (decimal point)														(proposals: DAY-SEE-MAL, DECIMAL)	decimal	DAY-SEE-MAL
Hundred															hundred	HUN-dred
Thousand														(proposals: TOUS-AND, –)	thousand	TOU-SAND
,				Kilogramme	Kilogramme								Kilo
/ (fraction bar)				Liverpool	Liverpool								Lima
(break signal)				Madagascar	Madagascar								Mike
. (punctuation)				New-York	New York								November

For the 1938 and 1947 phonetics, 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".

Pronunciation was not defined prior to 1959. For the 1959 – present phonetics, the underlined syllable of each letter word should be emphasized, and each syllable of the code words for the figures (1969 – present) should be equally emphasized.

International aviation

The Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet is used by the International Civil Aviation Organization for international aircraft communications.

Letter	1932 General Radiocommunication and Additional Regulations (CCIR/ICAN)	1946 ICAO Second Session of the Communications Division (same as Joint Army/Navy)	1947 ICAO (same as 1943 US-UK)	1947 ICAO alphabet (adopted exactly from ARRL	1947 ICAO Latin America/Caribbean	1949 ICAO code words	1951 ICAO code words	1956 – present ICAO code words
A	Amsterdam	Able	ABLE	ADAM	ANA	Alfa	Alfa	Alfa
B	Baltimore	Baker	BAKER	BAKER	BRAZIL	Beta	Bravo	Bravo
C	Casablanca	Charlie	CHARLIE	CHARLIE	COCO	Coca	Coca	Charlie
D	Danemark	Dog	DOG	DAVID	DADO	Delta	Delta	Delta
E	Edison	Easy	EASY	EDWARD	ELSA	Echo	Echo	Echo
F	Florida	Fox	FOX	FREDDIE	FIESTA	Foxtrot	Foxtrot	Foxtrot
G	Gallipoli	George	GEORGE	GEORGE	GATO	Golf	Gold	Golf
H	Havana	How	HOW	HARRY	HOMBRE	Hotel	Hotel	Hotel
I	Italia	Item	ITEM	IDA	INDIA	India	India	India
J	Jérusalem	Jig	JIG	JOHN	JULIO	Julietta	Juliett	Juliett
K	Kilogramme	King	KING	KING	KILO	Kilo	Kilo	Kilo
L	Liverpool	Love	LOVE	LEWIS	LUIS	Lima	Lima	Lima
M	Madagascar	Mike	MIKE	MARY	MAMA	Metro	Metro	Mike
N	New York	Nan (later Nickel)	NAN	NANCY	NORMA	Nectar	Nectar	November
O	Oslo	Oboe	OBOE	OTTO	OPERA	Oscar	Oscar	Oscar
P	Paris	Peter	PETER	PETER	PERU	Polka	Papa	Papa
Q	Québec	Queen	QUEEN	QUEEN	QUEBEC	Quebec	Quebec	Quebec
R	Roma	Roger	ROGER	ROBERT	ROSA	Romeo	Romeo	Romeo
S	Santiago	Sail/Sugar	SUGAR	SUSAN	SARA	Sierra	Sierra	Sierra
T	Tripoli	Tare	TARE	THOMAS	TOMAS	Tango	Tango	Tango
U	Upsala	Uncle	UNCLE	UNION	URUGUAY	Union	Union	Uniform
V	Valencia	Victor	VICTOR	VICTOR	VICTOR	Victor	Victor	Victor
W	Washington	William	WILLIAM	WILLIAM	WHISKEY	Whiskey	Whiskey	Whisky
X	Xanthippe	X-ray	XRAY	X-RAY	EQUIS	X-RAY	eXtra	X-ray
Y	Yokohama	Yoke	YOKE	YOUNG	YOLANDA	Yankey	Yankee	Yankee
Z	Zürich	Zebra	ZEBRA	ZEBRA	ZETA	Zebra	Zulu	Zulu
0		Zero	Zero
1		One	Wun
2		Two	Too					Two
3		Three	Thuh-ree					Three
4		Four	Fo-wer					Four
5		Five	Fi-yiv					Five
6		Six	Six					Six
7		Seven	Seven					Seven
8		Eight	Ate					Eight
9		Nine	Niner					Niner
.								Decimal
100								Hundred
1000								Thousand

International maritime mobile service

The ITU-R Radiotelephony Alphabet is used by the International Maritime Organization for international marine communications.

Letter	1932–1965 IMO code words	1965 – present (WRC-03) IMO code words	1967 WARC code words	2000 – present IMO SMCP code words	1967 WARC respelling	2007 – present ITU-R respelling
A	Amsterdam	Alfa	Alfa	Alfa	AL FAH	AL FAH
B	Baltimore	Bravo	Bravo	Bravo	BRAH VOH	BRAH VOH
C	Casablanca	Charlie	Charlie	Charlie	CHAR LEE or SHAR LEE	CHAR LEE or SHAR LEE
D	Danemark	Delta	Delta	Delta	DELL TAH	DELL TAH
E	Edison	Echo	Echo	Echo	ECK OH	ECK OH
F	Florida	Foxtrot	Foxtrot	Foxtrot	FOKS TROT	FOKS TROT
G	Gallipoli	Golf	Golf	Golf	GOLF	GOLF
H	Havana	Hotel	Hotel	Hotel	HOH TELL	HOH TELL
I	Italia	India	India	India	IN DEE AH	IN DEE AH
J	Jérusalem	Juliett	Juliett	Juliet	JEW LEE ETT	JEW LEE ETT
K	Kilogramme	Kilo	Kilo	Kilo	KEY LOH	KEY LOH
L	Liverpool	Lima	Lima	Lima	LEE MAH	LEE MAH
M	Madagascar	Mike	Mike	Mike	MIKE	MIKE
N	New-York	November	November	November	NO VEM BER	NO VEM BER
O	Oslo	Oscar	Oscar	Oscar	OSS CAH	OSS CAH
P	Paris	Papa	Papa	Papa	PAH PAH	PAH PAH
Q	Québec	Quebec	Quebec	Quebec	KEH BECK	KEH BECK
R	Roma	Romeo	Romeo	Romeo	ROW ME OH	ROW ME OH
S	Santiago	Sierra	Sierra	Sierra	SEE AIR RAH	SEE AIR RAH
T	Tripoli	Tango	Tango	Tango	TANG GO	TANG GO
U	Upsala	Uniform	Uniform	Uniform	YOU NEE FORM or OO NEE FORM	YOU NEE FORM or OO NEE FORM
V	Valencia	Victor	Victor	Victor	VIK TAH	VIK TAH
W	Washington	Whisky	Whisky	Whisky	WISS KEY	WISS KEY
X	Xanthippe	X-ray	X-ray	X-ray	ECKS RAY	ECKS RAY
Y	Yokohama	Yankee	Yankee	Yankee	YANG KEY	YANG KEY
Z	Zurich	Zulu	Zulu	Zulu	ZOO LOO	ZOO LOO
0	Zero	ZEERO	NADAZERO	ZEERO	NAH-DAH-ZAY-ROH	NAH-DAH-ZAY-ROH
1	One	WUN	UNAONE	WUN	OO-NAH-WUN	OO-NAH-WUN
2	Two	TOO	BISSOTWO	TOO	BEES-SOH-TOO	BEES-SOH-TOO
3	Three	TREE	TERRATHREE	TREE	TAY-RAH-TREE	TAY-RAH-TREE
4	Four	FOWER	KARTEFOUR	FOWER	KAR-TAY-FOWER	KAR-TAY-FOWER
5	Five	FIFE	PANTAFIVE	FIFE	PAN-TAH-FIVE	PAN-TAH-FIVE
6	Six	SIX	SOXISIX	SIX	SOK-SEE-SIX	SOK-SEE-SIX
7	Seven	SEVEN	SETTESEVEN	SEVEN	SAY-TAY-SEVEN	SAY-TAY-SEVEN
8	Eight	AIT	OKTOEIGHT	AIT	OK-TOH-AIT	OK-TOH-AIT
9	Nine	NINER	NOVENINE	NINER	NO-VAY-NINER	NO-VAY-NINER
.			DECIMAL		DAY-SEE-MAL	DAY-SEE-MAL
.	Full stop		STOP		STOP	STOP
,	Comma
	Break signal
⁄	Fraction bar
1000		TOUSAND		TOUSAND

Variants

Aviation

• "Delta" is sometimes replaced by "Data", "Dixie", or "David" at airports that have a majority of Delta Air Lines flights in order to avoid confusion because "Delta" is also Delta's callsign. At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the automated people mover known as The Plane Train uses the NATO phonetic alphabet to identify all stops except the stop for Concourse D, which is announced as "D, as in David"; historically, air traffic control communications referred to Taxiway D at the same airport as "Taxiway Dixie", though this practice was officially discontinued on August 18, 2020.
• "Lima" is replaced by the old RAF word "London" in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore because "lima" means "five" in Indonesian, Malay and a number of other languages in those countries. Thus, confusion could occur if a string of mixed numerals and letters were being given.
• In Muslim countries, where alcohol is banned, the original ITU "Washington" or "White" replaces "Whiskey" for "W".
• In Pakistan, "Indigo" or "Italy" replaces "India" because of ongoing conflicts with India.

See also

• International Code of Signals
• Spelling alphabet
• Allied military phonetic spelling alphabets
• APCO radiotelephony spelling alphabet
• Language-specific spelling alphabets
  • Finnish Armed Forces radio alphabet
  • German spelling alphabet
  • Greek spelling alphabet
  • Japanese radiotelephony alphabet
  • Korean spelling alphabet
  • Russian spelling alphabet
  • Swedish Armed Forces radio alphabet
• Radiotelephony procedure
  • Procedure word
  • Brevity code
    • Ten-code
• Q code
• List of military time zones
• PGP word list

External links

• "The Postal History of ICAO: Annex 10 - Aeronautical Telecommunications". ICAO. Archived from the original on 12 February 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
• "NATO Declassified - The NATO Phonetic Alphabet". North Atlantic Treaty Organization.