3 ms·
The thing that jumped out at me, and isn't explained in this article or the linked ones, is that all of the distress-related prowords are French and none of the
by blahedo 6y ago
The thing that jumped out at me, and isn't explained in this article or the linked ones, is that all of the distress-related prowords are French and none of the others are. Specifically, they're French-derived but spelled as if in English ("MAYDAY", "SEELONCE").
Why?
- pm3003 6y ago- French was the language of the ITU and its predecessors. - On HF radio you need words that can be distinguished very clearly and not mistaken for somethkng else.
- mjlee 6y agoSee also PAN-PAN, from the French 'panne' meaning breakdown. The story I was told behind the origin of these was that they evolved from British <-> French air traffic and was a reasonably logical thing that everybody agreed on and could pronounce intelligibly for the other party. Edit to add: English is the official international language for naval/aviation communication. Having really important words in another language makes them stand out and hard to say by mistake.
- supernova87a 6y agoI think it's to help Brad Pitt when he tries to speak those lines in his Southern accent. ARREEVA-DAIRCHEE
- tdeck 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayday https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayday I think these particular words are older than many of the other ones. Also French-derived is CQ, which comes from the French sécurité. These phrases date back to when French was used much more as an international language.