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NATO phonetic alphabet

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Local · ICAO spellings, Alfa and Juliett included

Spells any text using the NATO/ICAO alphabet — Alfa, Bravo, Charlie — the one used by aviation, shipping and the military worldwide.

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Two of the spellings are deliberately not English and it is worth knowing why: "Alfa" and "Juliett" are spelled that way on purpose, because "Alpha" would be pronounced with a silent ph by French and Spanish speakers, and "Juliet" would lose its final t. The alphabet was chosen in the 1950s by testing candidate words against noise and across accents, which is why several are unremarkable words — they survived the test. The digits have their own forms too, with "niner" for nine so it is not confused with the German "nein" over a radio.

Questions

Is it Alfa or Alpha? −

Officially Alfa. The ph spelling would be misread by speakers of several languages as an f-less sound.

Why is Juliett spelled with two ts? +

Is this the same as the police alphabet? +

Why "niner" for nine? +

Who uses this alphabet? +

Sources

ICAO — Annex 10, the radiotelephony spelling alphabet

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