We've all heard of the NATO alphabet — Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta — but what if you want to cause mischief and make the other person think a little bit, enter the Unphonetic Alphabet.
I've seen variations of the unphonetic alphabet around on the Internet, but many of them were usually missing a letter or two. So I made the completest version I could find. If you have any other examples, let me know.
- A - aisle, aeon, aesthetics
- B - bdellium
- C - czar
- D - django, djembe
- E - ewe, euphonium, euonym, eight, eau, eye
- F - "F as in phonetics"
- G - gnat, gnarly, gnome
- H - heir, honor,
- I - Iago, ihram
- J - jalapeño, Jose
- K - knight, knife, knowledge
- L - llama
- M - mnemonic
- N - Ng (pronounced eng), Nth degree
- O - oedipal, ouija, oenophile, opossom
- P - psychology, pneumonia, "P as in urine"
- Q - quay (pronounced key), Quran
- R - Rzeszow (pronounced jeh-shuuf)
- S - shove, shit, see ("C")
- T - tsunami, or "T as in oolong."
- U - urn, uighur, urushiol (the stuff in poison oak)
- V - veld (pronounced "felt")
- W - writer, wrong, wrap
- X - xylophone, xenophobia
- Y - Yves, Ypsilanti, yttrium (a kind of metal)
- Z - Zhivago (pronounced "jeh-vah-go")
Photo credit: Drumcliff (Pixabay, Creative Commons 0)
My new humor novel, Mackinac Island Nation, is finished and available from 4 Horsemen Publications. You can get the ebook and print versions here.