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The French Alphabet - It is not exactly like English

Moderators: MoniqueMaRie, dakanga

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dakanga

The French Alphabet - It is not exactly like English

Post by dakanga »

Have you noticed, even in English, letters have names, that can be different to the sounds they represent in words. For example, "w", is called "double u" or "Dubōyoo", but makes the sound "wuh", like water.

The French alphabet, though it uses the Latin alphabet, has a few differences to how it is used in English, when used in French.

The names of letters are different to the names of English letters, as well as some differences in their pronunciation.

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dakanga

Re: The French Alphabet - It is not exactly like English

Post by dakanga »

The names of the letters are also different, to the names in English.

French letter Letter name IPA transcription
Aa ah a
Bb beh be
Cc seh se
Dd deh de
Ee uh ə
Ff eff ɛf
Gg zheh ʒe
Hh ahsh
Ii ee i
Jj zhee ʒi
Kk kah ka
Ll ell ɛl
Mm em ɛm
Nn en ɛn
Oo oh o
Pp peh pe
Qq koo ky
Rr air ɛʀ
Ss ess ɛs
Tt teh te
Uu ooh y
Vv veh ve
Ww doobl-veh dubləve
Xx eeks iks
Yy ee-grek igrək
Zz zed zɛd
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dakanga

Re: The French Alphabet - It is not exactly like English

Post by dakanga »

Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet

Related to this topic, is International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet (IRSA).

Also known as the NATO phonetic alphabet ; ICAO phonetic alphabet ref:

This alphabet is the most widely used set of clear code words for communicating the letters of the Roman alphabet. And is used by the fire brigade and emergency services.

  • A Alfa
  • B Bravo
  • C Charlie
  • D Delta

etc.

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MoniqueMaRie
Germany

Re: The French Alphabet - It is not exactly like English

Post by MoniqueMaRie »

When I was learning French at school, the most unusual letter names for me (as a German) were those for h, w and y.

And of course: our German "w" is pronounced like the "v" in almost all other European languages and therefore has the letter name of the French v.

Native :de: / using :uk: / learning :fr: :cn: :it: / once learnt Image / trying to understand at least a bit :poland:

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dakanga

Re: The French Alphabet - It is not like English

Post by dakanga »

I have now also created a post on "The Spelling Alphabet" : viewtopic.php?t=6607-the-spelling-alphabet

Helge.

Re: The French Alphabet - It is not exactly like English

Post by Helge. »

dakanga wrote: Wed Aug 24, 2022 9:26 pm

Related to this topic, is International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet (IRSA).

Vous pouvez consulter l'alphabet téléphonique français :
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_ ... e_français

learn vocab with/against me on Drops https://invite.languagedrops.com/ZApJ6kbeBuB3kvVy6 lerne Vokabeln mit mir oder gegen mich

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dakanga

Re: The French Alphabet - It is not exactly like English

Post by dakanga »

Yes, this is a variant of many different "spelling alphabets" that came into being about at the time we started to have radio and phone communications. Since telephone communications, and later communications by radio, were/are not always of excellent quality, people started to create many variations on this theme. Such as the one you mention [mention]Helge.[/mention] .

Thank you for adding to this discussion, and this resource.

From the beginning of the 20th century , different "telephone" alphabets appeared in different countries, and among different sub communities in different countries.

But the development of international communications has also required standardization, whether in the field of aeronautics, maritime transport, telecommunications, the military field or emergency services. The "international" spelling alphabet is what has resulted to meet this need and is used as a standard across many countries and different languages for this reason.

And thus for myself - who not infrequently finds myself needing to communicate between people who speak different languages - to have a standard like this is most useful.

While in France, it is this standard using the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet (IRSA) by Emergency services as well (I have a few friends in the Emergency services, including here in France). Also, when I am fortunate enough to go sailing, including in French waters, once again, it is the IRSA standard that is used.

Two concerns underlie the development of these alphabets.

In using these "spelling alphabets" the first concern is that the words corresponding to letters should not be easily confused (for example <p> and <b>, <t> and <d>) are clearly distinct.

The second concern is that the words used are sufficiently known to be immediately decoded. Which is also why having/being able to use a standard such is IRSA is so useful. Especially between people which have different languages and also different accents.

However, some other smaller communities do use some different standards, as you have mentioned.

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Stasia
Poland

Re: The French Alphabet - It is not exactly like English

Post by Stasia »

It's just me splitting hair, but...:

Alphabet = script, written letters. Therefore, the alphabet is the same in all languages which use Latin alphabet - English, French, Spanish, Polish, Czech, German, etc. Some languages use diacritics such as accents and other additions, but the basic alphabet is the same. There are some other variations, for example we don't use the letter "v" in Polish, but it's still the same Latin alphabet.

What varies between different languages which use the Latin alphabet is the pronunciation of particular letters. English is a bit weird because it has the most divergent pronunciation of vowels, Polish is a bit weird because we pronounce "w" as "v" (yes, we got that from German) and we have a weird looking "ł" to pronounce as "w," other languages using the Latin alphabet have other weird things too.

But it's still the same alphabet, unless you study Greek, or a language that is using Cyrillic, or some other alphabet.

Native: :poland:; Fluent: :es:, :us:; Getting there: Image; Intermediate: :fr:; Beginner: :ukraine:

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dakanga

Re: The French Alphabet - It is not exactly like English

Post by dakanga »

awwwww ! I love your hair splitting !

Thanks for pointing it out, and keep pointing out things like this !

I hope you do not do that hair splitting on yourself, or we may have to propose a gentle and accepting, and in respect - as can be the nature sometimes in Australia, of the title/name of "split ends" to you :lol:

Again, thanks for pointing this out !
And keep it up !

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