Wouldn't you think by now that we'd have set letters when people spell words or email addresses? I have heard some ridiculous ones, like "P" as in "Phyllis" or "X" as in "King Xerxes." Today on the plane the stewardess said, "F" as in "Foxtrot." [Why the need for the "trot?"]

Foxtrot is one of the standard mnemonics for f. X-ray is no better than Xerxes. At least they both start with xs. Phyllis, though, seems a bad choice.

As zmj says, "foxtrot" is part of the standard phonetic alphabet. It was decided upon several years ago, when the foxtrot was part of our everyday life, not just something performed by weirdos in monkey suits or yards of satin and tulle.

As remarked on the Wikipedia page cited by zmj,

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And if Delta Goodrem wins an Oscar, we can all say Bravo Oscar Victor Delta!

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As zmj says, "foxtrot" is part of the standard phonetic alphabet. It was decided upon several years ago,

The modern phonetic alphabet has been in use for about 50 years and the words were selected as being those which were most likely to be understood world-wide. This is why there are only a few proper names in the whole thing and only two of these - Charlie and Juliet- have no meaning other than that of a name. I heard that originally a different word was chosen for "C", but, as Charlie was already used and liked by several of the extant alphabets, it became the official word by default.

There's a list of the phonetic alphabets, old and new, here. http://morsecode.scphillips.com/alphabet.html

Of course, many will remember to old alphabet (said to be Cockney) that starts: A for 'orses; B fo mutton and so on. You can find a version of it here: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/SpellHumour/CockneyAlphabet.htm

Oh, I forgot to mention, but Richard's post has reminded me, I have been through all three Allied checkpoints in then-East Germany: Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. (Ya gotta love those cockneys, or at least their alphabets and rhymes.)

Regarding phonetic alphabets, one very important criterion is that the 26 words sound very clearly distinct from each other -- as well as, of course, as much as possible, from other words not in the list (although having the list solidly memorized eliminates this problem; this is why making up one's own words is a doubleplusungood idea.).

I think this is why "foxtrot" was chosen -- I challenge anyone to come up with a similar-sounding word -- rather than (as someone suggested) simply "fox": box, locks, socks, hocks, etc.

Keep also in mind that these alphabets were devised back when radio communication was very low-fi and staticky, so that sibilants (f, s) and other groups (b, v; m, n) were easily confounded for each other.

In general, single-syllable words, while perhaps "efficient" (i.e. quick to say), tend to fail the criterion of phonetic unambiguity under adverse conditions.

Dave da ex-ham

PS -- Was "Phyllis" really part of a phonetic alphabet? What an appallingly bad choice!!!

Okay, I understand "foxtrot" then. And we all agree that "Phyllis" is ridiculous. Yet, it seems only slightly more strange to me that "Charlie" does. I have heard "Charlie" used by the airlines, too. I'd expect a hard "c," such as in "cat."

When I look at Zmj's link, I find "kilo" odd. Is "kilo" itself even a word? Isn't it "kilogram?" There are enough people who wouldn't recognize that word, I'd think, and who would go to the "C" gate.

The armed forces use many words differently for clarity of use over radios, etc. In addition to the phonetic alphabet, numbers are pronounced differently to avoid confusion: 4 is fow-er, 5 is fife, 9 is niner, etc. Apparently in a countdown an artilleryman will not use five at all, missing it out- 7,6,4,3,2,1. This is to avoid confusion with "fire!".

Plus of course it's why the North Vietnamese were nicknamed "Charlie"- Viet Cong=VC= Victor Charlie.

Is "kilo" itself even a word? Isn't it "kilogram?"

Yes, it is an alternative word for kilogram. Just like kli(c)k is for kilometer. (Oh, and Germans say zwo for zwei 'two' when reciting numerals digit by digit over the phone/radio.)

Kalle, regarding "Charlie" and "Cat", I have a speculation.

The trouble with 'c' is that it can have the 'k' (cat) or the 's'(civet) sound, and you don't want poor spellers to "hear" either of those erroneously - but the "chuh" sound can ONLY be kicked off by a 'c', at least at the beginning of a word.

D

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Originally posted by zmjezhd:
Is "kilo" itself even a word? Isn't it "kilogram?"

Yes, it is an alternative word for kilogram. Just like kli(c)k is for kilometer. (Oh, and Germans say zwo for zwei 'two' when reciting numerals digit by digit over the phone/radio.)

Yes, and slang terms in many languages will drop the last part of along word. Is that called "apocope" or asomething like that?

The "zwo" is to avoid the rhyme collision with "drei" of course. Apropos, I once saw a delightful visual pun in a picture taken in a German grocery store. A sign said: "ZwO Kilos ...", but the 'O' was drawn as an egg. If you take the egg as an 'o', you'd say "zw-o"; if you took it as an egg -- "Ei" in German, you'd say "zw-ei".

David the Teutomane

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Yes, it is an alternative word for kilogram.

Well, in my defense (which I really need around this board!), the OED has 3 citations for "kilo." One calls it an abbreviation for "kilogram;" another calls it an abbreviation for "kilometre;" and the other writes it as "kilo-" and all the citations associate it with another word, such as "kiloparsecs."

So maybe I am a tiny, little bit in the right here?

The best example of the phonetic alpahabet, I heard many years ago was when an Aussie friend introduced himself, saying:
"My name is Hudgson; the 'g' is silent, like the 'p' in ocean."

Took me more than a moment to get that, pearce, you naughty boy.