4 ms·

What I don't really like about the list is that if you don't know the list (which many people don't) then some of them are such unintuitive examples that they w

What I don't really like about the list is that if you don't know the list (which many people don't) then some of them are such unintuitive examples that they will catch a decent number of people off-guard and force you to repeat. Or, you know, the other way around. If we're using words as obscure as "Yankee" and "Zulu" (I wonder how many people have even heard these words, especially non-natives and English learners across the globe?), you'd think maybe sticking with a few categories would've made things easier and more intuitive? e.g. if we're using "K for Kilo" (which itself seems kind of bizarre in North America) then you'd think other natural choices would be "M for Mega", "G for Giga", "T for Ten", etc. which everyone speaking English (and then some) would've heard of... but nope, instead they're Mike, Golf, and Foxtrot (?!) of all things. They seem targeted specifically toward people to whom all the words come naturally and who've ideally learned the list. No wonder people don't go out of their way to learn them.

GoblinSlayer 6y ago
Some use name expansion and it's intuitive: M for Michael, T for Thomas. Though properly covering latin alphabet with english phonetics can be challenging. What name should correspond to A? Arven?
- mehrdadn 6y ago
  Alex?
BorisTheBrave 6y ago
The words are chosen so that they sound dissimilar to each other, and they have an unamibiguous spelling and and pronounciation. They also ideally need to be words that won't come up in normal speech. The actual meaning is irrelevant. So mega/giga would be undesirable as they sound similar, and beceause many people pronounce giga as "jigga". And "Ten" is just terrible, what is someone is reading out an alphanumeric string?
- mehrdadn 6y ago
  Oh come on. Ten is terrible because someone might be reading out an alphanumeric string? You can say that about other stuff already on that list. What if they're just reading out names? Then Charlie and Mike will be confusing. What if they're reading months? Then November will be confusing. What if they're reading countries? Then India will be confusing... The particular choice of words wasn't even my point, and of course I get the dissimilarity thing. If "Ten" bothers you then just choose "Tom" or whatever. I know I've never seen anyone say jigga instead of giga, but if you have, then just pick another word. My point was about having a common theme to help make the list intuitive, not that "Ten" and "Mega" are inherently better than "Tango" or "Mike".
- rauhl 6y ago
  > many people pronounce giga as "jigga". Do they? I do, because it is the correct pronunciation (the hard G only became prevalent after hard drives grew to GB sizes and Americans unfamiliar with the French system of units mispronounced the prefix), but I am literally the only one I have ever heard use it in person, and the only other instance I have heard it pronounced correctly is by Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown in Back to the Future. Why do I persist when everyone around me pronounces it incorrectly? Indeed, if everyone else pronounces a word a different way, are they right and am I wrong? I guess I just like tilting at windmills, I guess! Also GIF has a soft g …
  - jagged-chisel 6y ago
    No. You cannot pronounce a graphic standard's acronym in a way that might confuse it with my peanut butter.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
    The French pronounciation is the "Correct" pronounciation? Wait 'till you hear how Greeks pronounce "Giga" and "Mega"- Greek words meaning "giant" and "large" :) ... or how we pronounce "gamma", for that matter. (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_velar_fricative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_velar_fricative)
- 6y ago
macintux 6y ago
The list was designed for people who are going to train extensively to get them right, and for situations where mistakes can kill people. You could probably develop an easier-to-comprehend list for everyday use, although I’m not persuaded by your complaints that the existing list isn’t suitable.
nucleardog 6y ago
Yeah, the list is great when you're working with other people that have also learned the list. We use it in emergency communications and it's definitely way less mentally taxing and less confusing all using the same alphabet. I'd say at least half the time when I use it talking to some call centre employee I lose them about two letters in to whatever I'm trying to spell. That said, if there was a great replacement that would probably be in use instead. It's not just a list of words that happen to start with those letters, it's a list of words that do not sound similar to each other, are unambiguous as to what letter they represent, and maintain those qualities in a wide variety of accents and dialects.

GoblinSlayer 6y ago

Some use name expansion and it's intuitive: M for Michael, T for Thomas. Though properly covering latin alphabet with english phonetics can be challenging. What name should correspond to A? Arven?

mehrdadn 6y ago
Alex?

BorisTheBrave 6y ago

The words are chosen so that they sound dissimilar to each other, and they have an unamibiguous spelling and and pronounciation. They also ideally need to be words that won't come up in normal speech. The actual meaning is irrelevant. So mega/giga would be undesirable as they sound similar, and beceause many people pronounce giga as "jigga". And "Ten" is just terrible, what is someone is reading out an alphanumeric string?

mehrdadn 6y ago
Oh come on. Ten is terrible because someone might be reading out an alphanumeric string? You can say that about other stuff already on that list. What if they're just reading out names? Then Charlie and Mike will be confusing. What if they're reading months? Then November will be confusing. What if they're reading countries? Then India will be confusing... The particular choice of words wasn't even my point, and of course I get the dissimilarity thing. If "Ten" bothers you then just choose "Tom" or whatever. I know I've never seen anyone say jigga instead of giga, but if you have, then just pick another word. My point was about having a common theme to help make the list intuitive, not that "Ten" and "Mega" are inherently better than "Tango" or "Mike".
rauhl 6y ago
> many people pronounce giga as "jigga". Do they? I do, because it is the correct pronunciation (the hard G only became prevalent after hard drives grew to GB sizes and Americans unfamiliar with the French system of units mispronounced the prefix), but I am literally the only one I have ever heard use it in person, and the only other instance I have heard it pronounced correctly is by Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown in Back to the Future. Why do I persist when everyone around me pronounces it incorrectly? Indeed, if everyone else pronounces a word a different way, are they right and am I wrong? I guess I just like tilting at windmills, I guess! Also GIF has a soft g …
- jagged-chisel 6y ago
  No. You cannot pronounce a graphic standard's acronym in a way that might confuse it with my peanut butter.
- YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
  The French pronounciation is the "Correct" pronounciation? Wait 'till you hear how Greeks pronounce "Giga" and "Mega"- Greek words meaning "giant" and "large" :) ... or how we pronounce "gamma", for that matter. (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_velar_fricative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_velar_fricative)
6y ago

macintux 6y ago

The list was designed for people who are going to train extensively to get them right, and for situations where mistakes can kill people. You could probably develop an easier-to-comprehend list for everyday use, although I’m not persuaded by your complaints that the existing list isn’t suitable.

nucleardog 6y ago

Yeah, the list is great when you're working with other people that have also learned the list. We use it in emergency communications and it's definitely way less mentally taxing and less confusing all using the same alphabet. I'd say at least half the time when I use it talking to some call centre employee I lose them about two letters in to whatever I'm trying to spell. That said, if there was a great replacement that would probably be in use instead. It's not just a list of words that happen to start with those letters, it's a list of words that do not sound similar to each other, are unambiguous as to what letter they represent, and maintain those qualities in a wide variety of accents and dialects.