Alpha Bravo Charlie

[pensnest]

Can you help me complete a really unhelpful phonetic alphabet?

A - aesthetic
B - bdellium, or bee
C - czar
D - Django
E - ewe
F
G - genuflect
H - hotel
I - iridium
J - jojoba
K - knife
L - Llandudno
M - mnemonic
N
O - ouija
P - pneumonia
Q - Qatar
R
S - sugar
T - tsar
U - Uakari
V
W - wrestle
X - xenophobia
Y - Ygraine, or You
Z

Comments

[buddleia]

S - sugar

[pensnest]

Thanks!

[stultiloquentia]

Xhosa, Ygraine, Zürich

[pensnest]

All the X's seem to start with Zed, don't they! I think I'm going to leave Zurich as most non-Germans would say zz rather than ts. Ygraine is an excellent call.

[stultiloquentia]

I was thinking of the click sound in front of Xhosa just to be Extra. *g*

[pensnest]

I have to admit, I don't know how to pronounce it...

[antisoppist]

Ewe.

This was on a genuine alphabet display in my mother's first primary school.

[pensnest]

Brilliant!

[frausorge]

T - Tkachuk

[dine]

ha! that's a name I spent a lot of time typing this afternoon (I was transcribing an article on the Sens for a friend who doesn't subscribe to THN)

[frausorge]

It was a real headscratcher for me the first few times I encountered it!

[pensnest]

I must admit to not recognising this - what/who is it?

[frausorge]

It’s the family surname of some former and current players in the National Hockey League. The T is silent.

[dine]

what you really need is a copy of P is for Pterodactyl! the book is filled with all sorts of unhelpful words for each letter.

like B is bdellium (I guess the B is silent?)

J - jai alai

O - ouija

and I could provide candidates for the rest if you need help completing your list!

[pensnest]

I'm grabbing bdellium and ouija, but I bethought me of jojoba so I put that in.

[dine]

oh, jojoba is a brilliant one! this is quite a fun project, I'm glad you're finding lots of words for your list

[brandywine28]

For T - Tsunami!

For W - wreck/wrestle/wrinkle, etc.

For X - Xylophone? (Or is that one too obvious?)

Also: I see you've already taken care of 'c', but - czar!

[conuly]

For extra head scratchery, T and C could be for tsar and czar.

[brandywine28]

Very true! (I thought of that about three seconds after I pressed 'post', actually, but I was too lazy to go back and edit the comment :)

[pensnest]

This is brilliant.

[pensnest]

I love the tsar/czar idea so that has gone in. And really, I should have been able to think up some Ws for myself. Have gone with xenophobia, but practically all the x's start with zed.

[sylvaine]

I LOVE THIS 😂

[pensnest]

It is bringing me joy!

[sylvaine]

I have no memory of this post, but I am just as delighted as I apparently was 3 years ago! 😂

[pensnest]

Ahaha! I didn't remember it either, but am similarly charmed.

[vae]

X for xenophobia?

I will confess, I have genuinely said "B for honey" on a call when I was stumped. But "B for bee" would be equally unhelpful.

[pensnest]

That... is kind of brilliant.

Oh - babylon5_love

[vae]

Thank you!

[turlough]

I - Iridium

[watervole]

Are you familiar with the Cockney Alphabet?

A for horses, etc. (you have to think for a moment about some of them, but many are obvious when spoken aloud)

http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/alphabet/

This particular version works well for my age group, but there are many variations.

[pensnest]

Clever in an entirely different way! One could puzzle invading aliens very easily.

[chalcopyrite]

U for Uakari! (Pron. "waKAree," it's a New World monkey, of which three species were mentioned in the song I had about them as a kid.)

[pensnest]

Excellent. It's a pretty good Unhelpful Phonetic Alphabet, I think.