♥ Thursday, March 4
International Phonetic Alphabet
Aviation has its own unique vocabulary, phraseology, and acronyms. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is the controlling agency for worldwide aviation activities. To avoid miscommunications in a worldwide air transportation system, ICAO chose English as the official language of aviation.
Everything pertaining to aviation is controlled and approved by the ICAO. Radio frequencies, light colors, runway and taxiway markings, airport and airway identifiers, and navigation aids are ICAO approved.
Letter and numeral pronunciation can be so easily misunderstood (such as hearing an "S" for an "F" or a "B" for a "D"). Because of that, letters and numerals in aviation are spoken using the International Phonetic Alphabet. This alphabet substitutes an entire word to represent one letter. The first letter of the word is the letter of the alphabet it represents. It would be difficult to confuse "Sierra" (the letter "S") for the letter "F" (said as "Foxtrot"). The numeral "nine" is pronounced "niner." The accepted reasoning is that "nein" is a common German word that means no. By eliminating that pronunciation, confusion was to be avoided.
International Phonetic Alphabet
(Accented syllable in bold.)
A - Alpha ( al - fah)
B - Bravo (brah - voh)
C - Charlie (char - lee)
D - Delta (dell - tah)
E - Echo (eck - oh)
F - Foxtrot (foks - trot)
G - Golf (golf)
H - Hotel (hoh - tell)
I - India (in - dee - ah)
J - Juliet (jew - lee- ett)
K - Kilo (key - loh)
L - Lima (lee - mah)
M - Mike (mike)
N - November (no - vem - ber)
O - Oscar (oss - car)
P - Papa (pah - pah)
Q - Quebec (keh - beck)
R - Romeo (roh - me - oh)
S - Sierra (see - air - ah)
T - Tango (tang - go)
U - Uniform (you - nee - form)
V - Victor (vik - tor)
W - Whiskey (wiss - key)
X - X ray (ecks - ray)
Y - Yankee (yang - key)
Z - Zulu (zoo - loo)
4/9 '10 loves x3 11:11 PM