by A. Terry Bahill

There are common phonetic alphabets, e.g.: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee and Zulu. But lately I have encountered many telephone service agents who gave me confirmation codes, but evidently did not want to use a standard phonetic alphabets. I don't know why they did not want to use common alphabets, but for them, I offer this alternative.

• A aye
• B bee
• C cue
• D duh
• E ewe
• F phonetic
• G gnome
• H heir
• I I
• J javelina
• K knight
• L Llinas
• M mnemonic
• N knee
• O oh
• P pneumonia, psychology
• Q queue
• R wabbit
• S see
• T tea
• U use
• V Queen Victoria
• W why
• X Xerox
• Y you
• Z zeta