A phonetic alphabet is any of three things:
- A writing system used for transcribing the sounds of human speech into writing. This is a linguistic tool, not a replacement alphabet. Among phonetic alphabets are:
- A new alphabet for languages which are not phonetic. It would replace the current one (at least for learning a language). For example:
- A list of standard words used to identify letters in a message transmitted by voice (including over radio, telephone, etc.). Occasionally known as a "radio alphabet". See:
Last updated: 08-17-2005 11:06:45