# All Nordic Languages: Radiotelephony alphabet



## aurette

In one of the threads on this forum, I saw someone say in Finland people use Finnish first names for the NATO/ International Alphabet. Could anyone speaking Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish tell me what they replace the International Alphabet with? (for example Finnish first names)

The international alphabet would be:
Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo...

Thank you


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## miu_miu

I'm swedish and in both swedish and danish you use first names. But some of the names you never hear being used.

Swedish:
Adam
Bertil
Cesar
David
Erik
Filip
Gustav
Helge
Ivar
Johan
Kalle
Ludvig
Martin
Niklas
Olof
Petter
Qvintus
Rudolf
Sigurd
Tore
Urban
Viktor
Wilhelm
Xerxes
Yngve
Zäta
Åke
Ärling
Östen

Danish:
Anna
Bernhard
Cecilia
David
Erik
Frederik
Georg
Hans
Ida
JJohan
Karen
Ludvig
Marie
Nikolaj
Odin
Peter
Quintus
Rasmus
Soeren
Theodor
Ulla
Viggo
William
Xerxes
Yrsa
Zacharias
Äegir
Öresund
Åse


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## mimimenee

I'm not so much into radiotelephony myself  but Finnish Wikipedia says this:

Aarne
Bertta
Celsius
Daavid
Eemeli
Faarao
Gideon
Heikki
Iivari
Jussi
Kalle
Lauri
Matti
Niilo
Otto
Paavo
Q kuu
Risto
Sakari
Tyyne
Urho
Vihtori
wiski
X äksä
Yrjö
Z tseta
Åke
äiti
öljy

Mainly they are male names (Bertta and Tyyne females). But we dont have names for every letter: 
Celsius and Faarao, you  may understand them without translation . 
Q, X or Z  are just kind of finnish pronounciations of the letters. 
Wiski is finnish version of NATO Whiskey.
Äiti=mother, öljy=oil.


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## kdfossum

No help here for Norwegian. It seems like Norwegian has adopted the international alphabet, with the addition of Æ Ærlig, Ø Østen and Å Åse. (as used by the Norwegian Military)

I would have to find an old phone book. I remember the original Norwegian version was always listed there. I'll work on it.


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## Andreas_Jensen

In Danish (in the army at least) you don't use first names. You use the NATO-alphabet like all of the NATO allies are supposed to. Sweden and Finland are not NATO members and can do whatever they feel like 

I don't remember the Danish additions for Æ,Ø,Å but the ones that Miu Miu gives for these three letters in Danish could be correct... I do remember that we use Ægir for Æ.


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## Sepia

Andreas_Jensen said:


> In Danish (in the army at least) you don't use first names. You use the NATO-alphabet like all of the NATO allies are supposed to. Sweden and Finland are not NATO members and can do whatever they feel like
> 
> I don't remember the Danish additions for Æ,Ø,Å but the ones that Miu Miu gives for these three letters in Danish could be correct... I do remember that we use Ægir for Æ.


 

ægir, øresund, åse

are the way I remember them too. 

But I wonder if people generally know the Nordic mythology so well that are aware that Ægir is spelled with an "æ". I am not mistaken that it is from the mythology, am I?


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## Tjahzi

Yes, Ägir/Ægir was the god of the sea in Norse mythology.

On a side note, I find "Ärling" to be an utterly unfitting name to represent "ä", the name "Ärling" is (more?) often spelled "Erling" (than "Ärling"). Needless to say, "e" and "ä" tend to be pronounced quite similarly (in Stockholmish, identically) so I'm really curious about how anyone managed to come up with "Ärling".


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## Lingvisten

the Æ, Ø and Å is in the danish military named as:

Ægir
Ødis
Åse


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## Ali Blabla

kdfossum said:


> No help here for Norwegian. It seems like Norwegian has adopted the international alphabet, with the addition of Æ Ærlig, Ø Østen and Å Åse. (as used by the Norwegian Military)
> 
> I would have to find an old phone book. I remember the original Norwegian version was always listed there. I'll work on it.


*
kdfossum* is right about this. In Norway we use the international (NATO) version, with the addition Ærlig (Æ), Østen (Ø) and Åse (Å).


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## María Madrid

I'm not sure that is called the NATO alphabet, it's used worldwide for civil aviation. 

I've heard it and used it in Sweden at the airport, when getting my flight locator on the phone or spelling a name, etc, but I don't think it's commonly used or even known for most of the population.


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## Ali Blabla

María Madrid said:


> I'm not sure that is called the NATO alphabet, it's used worldwide for civil aviation.



I think you're right about this. The reason why I mentioned NATO is that I learnt the phonetic alphabet in the army. Sorry for any convenience caused.


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## María Madrid

Lol, I learnt it as part of my training as an air hostess


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## aurette

Thank you all for your replies!
This comes in very handy for my job, the only problem is ... pronunciation is not going to be easy


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## Wilma_Sweden

Ali Blabla said:


> I think you're right about this. The reason why I mentioned NATO is that I learnt the phonetic alphabet in the army. Sorry for any convenience caused.


According to Wikipedia, it's called NATO phonetic alphabet although it's also used by international civil aviation and many others. I'm not allowed to post links yet, but the keyword in English Wikipedia is _NATO phonetic alphabet _- and in Swedish Wiki it's _Bokstavering_ (very good table appears).

I learned it from my sister who's an air traffic controller in Sweden, and found it extremely useful when in England for any spelling purposes. I'm not sure to what extent it's known among the general public in the UK - I heard impressed comments from Police or Forces members whenever I used it, suggesting they didn't expect that from a civilian...

What I have yet to find out is how Swedish ATC deal with Å, Ä, Ö and also what alphabet Swedish forces are using. Both questions have been emailed to my sister, so hopefully I'll have an answer to post within the next few days...

I simply love Wikipedia... 

/Wilma


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## Wilma_Sweden

Tjahzi said:


> Yes, Ägir/Ægir was the god of the sea in Norse mythology.
> 
> On a side note, I find "Ärling" to be an utterly unfitting name to represent "ä", the name "Ärling" is (more?) often spelled "Erling" (than "Ärling"). Needless to say, "e" and "ä" tend to be pronounced quite similarly (in Stockholmish, identically) so I'm really curious about how anyone managed to come up with "Ärling".


They didn't - it's Ärlig, not Ärling! Stockholmish does create another problem, though, with Cesar/Zäta, which is detailed in the Swedish Wikipedia article mentioned above, on _Bokstavering_.

(Another side note: consider all the rhyming anomalies created by Stockholmers, who think that _Margareta_ rhymes with _äta_ and _vinkelräta_...)


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## Tjahzi

miu_miu said:


> ...
> Åke
> *Ärling*
> Östen
> ...


 
Uhh, that very much looks like "Ärling" to me. 

EDIT: I read Wilma's article and noticed that it did indeed list "Ärlig" to represent "ä". That would mean the above poster is incorrect, ehh?


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## Wilma_Sweden

Tjahzi said:


> I read Wilma's article and noticed that it did indeed list "Ärlig" to represent "ä". That would mean the above poster is incorrect, ehh?


Yes, double-checked my telephone book, even. The Swedish list is correct apart from Ä, which should be Ärlig. 

Swedish aviation and armed forces use the NATO alphabet, where å, ä and ö are represented as alpha-alpha, alpha-echo and oscar-echo respectively. Now that I am finally allowed to post links, here's the Swedish Wiki link (other language links on left hand side of page): http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokstavering

/Wilma


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