Draft of Do-Gooder Phonetic Alphabet

[beowabbit]

OK, thanks for the suggestions, all! Here’s my first draft of the Do-Gooder Phonetic Alphabet:

A	COCOA
B	SUBTLE
C	INDICTMENT
D	HANDKERCHIEF
E	QUEUE
F	HALFPENNY (pron. HAY-puh-nee)
G	SIGN
H	HONOR
I	BRUISE
J	MARIJUANA
K	KNICKERS
L	SALMON
M	MNEMONIC
N	DAMN
O	LEOPARD
P	PSYCHIATRIST
Q	LACQUER
R	SARSPARILLA
S	ISLAND
T	BALLET
U	BUOY BUILDER
V	MILNGAVIE (pron. mill-GUY, a town near Glasgow)
W	ANSWER
X	PRIX
Y	PEPYS
Z	RENDEZVOUS

BREAD EARLY, LIMB LAMB, MUSCLE CZAR, WEDNESDAY HANDSOME, MORGUE, HALFPENNY, FOREIGN GNAT GNOSTIC, RHETORIC HEIR HOUR, FASHION, KNEE KNIFE, CAULK, COLUMN LIMN AUTUMN, PNEUMONIA CORPS PTOMAIN(E) PTARMIGAN, RACQUET (maybe KABBALAH, but only if you spell it that way), CORPS, HUSTLE, UILLEANN, WRIST WRAP WRITE WRONG WRY, MONTREUX FAUX XHOSA (in English; in Xhosa it’s a click), PRAYER, CHEZ

Comments

[derien.livejournal.com]

In 'buoy' it's the 'u' that's pronounced. At least in Maine. We don't pronounce the 'o'. ;)

[beowabbit]

Oops, you're entirely right! I got that from a not-very-reliable list. (I think I don’t strongly. distinguish the OO sound from the AW sound before Y.) I’ll fix that.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

WOW! My wuzzle came up with all of these?

[beowabbit]

No; I did a bunch of googling to find these. And of course, “handkerchief”, “salmon”, and “psychiatrist” are canon.

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

A few more thoughts - I always like to give words that start with the appropriate letter; so much more helpful. Still have a couple of gaps though :(

A: AITHCH
B: BDELLIUM
C: CUE
D: DOUBLE-YOU
E: ELL
F: FOHN
G: GNAT
H: HOUR
I: ICKS
J:
K: KEW
L:
M: MDOMO
O: OUEF
P: PSALM
Q: QUAY
R:
S: SEE
T: TSUNAMI
U: UM
V: VRAISEMBLANCE
W: WHY
X: XIAN
Y: YIPERITE
Z:

[beowabbit]

These are quite inspired!

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

I would think "forecastle" (pronounced [foksl]) has a place on the list. ;)

Maybe Qi [chi]?

[likethewatch.livejournal.com]

I love the idea of this list, and that you completed it, especially. I'm curious, why is it called a "do-gooder list"?

[beowabbit]

It’s the Do-Gooder Phonetic Alphabet because it’s the spelling alphabet used by Interplanetary Do-Gooders, just as the NATO Phonetic Alphabet is the spelling alphabet used by NATO personnel. L as in “salmon” and P as in “psychiatrist” were used by Red Shift and his trusty sidekick Lumpy when they went to Holowood and saved Jetpack Jones from the Spetacosians (sp?), and D as in “handkerchief” is also attested.

[joyeous.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised nobody said "U as in Spuyten Duyvil." It's just so much fun to say. :-)