The process of naming the individual letters of a word in succession is called spelling. People then spell out if they want to communicate the correct spelling of a word or phrase. As a rule, the letter is named by the letter name (C ~ Ce, F ~ Eff, J ~ Jot). However, the method is error-prone, as sounds can be overheard. Therefore, there are so-called spelling tables, which define a word for each letter.
In the case of a dictation or a conversation in private, such a spelling tablet is, of course, invalid. However, it is useful when spelled over the telephone or another radio link that is susceptible to noise. Therefore, it is only logical that the terms spelling alphabet, telephone alphabet, radio alphabet, and airline alphabet are used synonymously to spelling tables.
The history of the German spelling tablets goes back to the Berlin phone book from the year 1890. At that time, the individual letters of the alphabet were assigned numbers corresponding to the place in the alphabet. The A is the first letter and therefore had the one, the B the two, and so on.
The word Hello would look like this: Eight One Twelve Twelve Fifteen. Soon, however, words were used for the letters, because they were much more memorable. This corresponded to the sense of a disturbance-free transmission of course better. Various systems developed.
Note: In the following, we would like to present the different lettering panels and our attention to the German, Austrian, Swiss and international system. Afterwards, numerals are presented and the German letter names are spelled out for spelling.
Spelling tables for spelling
The following overview is based on the current standard. In Germany, DIN 5009 establishes the rules for dictation-dictation, in Austria it is ÖNORM A 1081, the ICAO / NATO alphabet being defined by the NATO itself.
Spell with the names of the letters
The above spelling boards are mainly used for spelling on the phone. The usual practice in conversation or a dictation is, however, the spelling using the names of the individual letters. In German, the letters are designated as follows.
The following overview lists the German uppercase letters as well as lowercase letters, the pronunciation according to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the spelling of the pronunciation, and the spelling as found in the standard dictionaries (bold).
Overview: The most important thing about spelling at a glance
Spelling means that a word or word sequence is called letter for letter. This is usually done by means of the letter name, but can also be made with so-called spelling tables for a better understanding.
Spelling tablets are primarily intended for spelling via radiotelephony and are therefore used in telephony, but also in the military. The individual letters are replaced by words. There are different spelling tables.
The background is that the words can be better understood. Since the words that are used to spell are usually composed of several syllables, the probability of a successful transmission is higher, since noise also only slightly affects the spelling and hardly weighs on the spelling.