Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2022 November 2

= November 2 =

Dialogue from Top Gun: Maverick

 * Transferred to Entertainment desk.

More about the NATO phonetic alphabet
Look at the WP:ALFA essay. As we know, it is saying that 2 of the 26 code words in the NATO phonetic alphabet deviate from their English namesakes in spelling. Interestingly enough, there is one code word in the NATO phonetic alphabet that differs from its English namesake in pronunciation. This is "Quebec". In English the Canadian province is kwi-BECK but the letter Q in the NATO phonetic alphabet is keh-BECK. Why?? (Also, please let me know another code word that differs from its English namesake in pronunciation.) Georgia guy (talk) 01:04, 2 November 2022 (UTC)
 * I guess since Quebec is a French name, more languages would have adopted the French pronunciation. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 02:04, 2 November 2022 (UTC)


 * Why? Because it's closer to the right way to pronounce it, which even some English-speakers use. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 02:51, 2 November 2022 (UTC)


 * The right way to pronounce the name of the city Quebec depends on what language you are speaking at the time. As for the pronunciation of the different word "Quebec", meaning "the letter Q", I think it is because the "kw" sound is rather hard for speakers of some languages. DuncanHill (talk) 02:55, 2 November 2022 (UTC)


 * The reason is because that's what the people who created the NATO alphabet wanted. They chose pronunciations which would be internationally recognizable to speakers of a variety of languages (not just English!) and "keh-BECK", besides being a varient used in some varieties of English, is common to other languages which would also use the NATO phonetic alphabet.  If you actually read that article, "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 "keh-BECK" pronunciation apparently was the one that worked best.  -- Jayron 32 11:21, 2 November 2022 (UTC)


 * Possibly nationality-dependent differences were not the only issue considered. The code has been adopted/adapted (I have no idea what the scale of changes was) in 1956 by NATO from ICAO regulations, and its predecessors evolved even before 1920s (at least https://www.boatsafe.com/phonetic-alphabet/ says so). In those times the radio communication was much worse than now, so pronunciation was not only adjusted for easy and unique articulation by speakers, but also for most reliable recognition by listeners, especially if we consider noise in aircrafts (or ships, btw, because the same codes were used at sea). --CiaPan (talk) 11:17, 3 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Courtesy link: Spelling alphabet -- Verbarson talkedits 23:34, 3 November 2022 (UTC)