Where Did the Phonetic Alphabet Come From?

As audio technology developed during the 1900s, people realized that they needed a clearer way to communicate terms than spelling them out in the normal alphabet. Learn how the NATO phonetic alphabet (Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, etc.) came to be in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://people.howstuffworks.com/phonetic-alphabet.htm

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here it happens all the
time when we watch movies, especially war movies. Crackle comes
over someone's radio and a voice cuts through the static.
Alpha Bravo. This is foxtrot victor, report your position over Alpha.

(00:22):
Bravo and foxtrot victor aren't code names. The hypothetical actors
who are playing soldiers in this hypothetical movie are using
the phonetic alphabet, also known as the NATO phonetic alphabet
or the military alphabet, where each letter is assigned a
full word. This may seem entirely unnecessary, why not just

(00:43):
say A instead of alpha, But think back to that scene.
The static of the radio, maybe the sounds of gunfire
or air raids, maybe other soldiers barking orders and answering.
Imagine trying to get a clear message through that radio
with all that noise. Maybe it's even come up in
real life when you've tried to spell your name or

(01:04):
email address while on the phone with customer service. You've
possibly used your own made up phonetic alphabet. That's S
is in superb as an apple and M is in music.
When people mostly communicated by writing letters, this wasn't a problem,
but as audio communications became more widespread, this kind of

(01:25):
clarity became necessary. According to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
or NATO, the first internationally recognized phonetic alphabet was invented
in the nineteen twenties by the International Telecommunications Union. It
used geographical names for each letter Amsterdam, Baltimore, Casablanca, Denmark,
and so on. In n one. In time for World

(01:49):
War Two, the U. S. Army and Navy jointly created
what's called the Abel Baker alphabet, which was also adopted
by United Kingdom forces. It uses shorter everyday words and
they aimes, Abel, Baker, Charlie, dog, easy, fox, etcetera. A
decade later, in nineteen fifty one, the International Air Transport

(02:10):
Association revised this alphabet to be less English centric. The
words used are all common in English, but we're considered
more universal, incorporating sounds in terms common to French and
Spanish as well, Alpha, bravo, coca, delta, etcetera. But this
version was only used in civil aviation, while NATO and

(02:32):
military forces continued to use the traditional Able Baker. Potentially confusing,
so in nineteen fifty six, NATO Allies decided to adopt
one phonetic alphabet for all members to use, changing only
a few of the words from the revised version. It's
the phonetic alphabet still used today. In full. It goes Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, golf,

(02:58):
hotel in Juliette, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, whiskey,
x Ray, Yankee, and Zulu. This alphabet is used pretty

(03:20):
much anywhere the clear audio communication is of the highest
importance and English is being spoken. Military forces, emergency services,
disaster response teams, civil aviation organizations, and even most amateur
radio operators all use the phonetic alphabet to spell out
critical terms. Today's episode is based on the article Alpha, Bravo, Charlie,

(03:46):
Where did the phonetic alphabet come from? On how Stuff
Works dot Com? Written by Kristen Hall Geisler. A brain
Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with
how stuff Works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang.
Four more podcasts from My Heart Radio visit their Heart radio, app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

(04:14):
H