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W is Willy, not Whiskey

Germans also say Golf, which I believe is correct, while in Britain you often hear Gooohf.

Also, the range of pronounciations you hear for Victor is astonishing - any second vowel but I.

:-)

In large parts of Asia, they do not distinguish (and in fact, many people cannot even hear the difference) between R and L in normal conversation, and you can get every sound between these two, depending on region

The whole point is that even if they say Rima, or Lomeo, everyone understands.

So Willy, sounding close enough to Whiskey, probably does the job, and much better than White, which could be confused with Eight.

Now that I think about it, a LOT of thought must have gone into that alphabet

Biggin Hill

We often say "fox" in the UK.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

Not sure if it's a rule or just a common habit, but Germans (and allegedly Swiss) tend to say "Fox" instead of "Foxtrot".

LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

Which of the last two messages is the funnier one?

Now now, Matthew asked & I answered.

In Saudi, "whiskey" is apparently replaced with...wait for it..."white".

The mentioned replacement of "lima" with "London" in South East Asia is definitely apocryphal - never heard about that one.

Trevor Thom's books mentioned that Whiskey is not Whiskey in the Middle East, then infuriatingly neglected to say what they say instead. My flying instructor didn't know either. Thanks!

Which of the last two messages is the funnier one?

On that note, what is "Romeo" in the Far East then? "Lomeo"? ????

No, we just say "Romeo".

On that note, what is "Romeo" in the Far East then? "Lomeo"? ????

ESSP, Sweden

Does anyone have a link to the Saudi pilots phonetic alphabet? I did some brief searches and couldnt find it. Arent they supposed to use a presumably globally international phonetic alphabet when communicating in English.

I am assuming 'Willy' is not a regular arabic word, in whichever form of Arabic they might use, and would not have local preference over 'Whisky' (other than for humorous reasons of course)

The problem with common sense is that apparently it is not that common in the first place ;-)

EDDS, Germany
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