NATO phonetic alphabet by those who exchange voice messages by radio or telephone, regardless of language differences or the quality of the communication channel. The 26 code words in the NATO phonetic alphabet are assigned to the 26 letters of the English alphabet in alphabetical order as follows: , Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, , Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. Strict adherence to the prescribed spelling words is required in order to avoid the problems of confusion that the spelling alphabet is designed to overcome. As noted in a
Naming conventions of the International Phonetic Alphabet sound it represents, "glottal stop". This is not normally a problem, because this symbol is seldom used to represent anything else. However, to specify the symbol itself, it is sometimes called a "gelded question mark". This latter name is derived from its original form as a dotless question mark in a fashion reminiscent of gelding. Diacritics are alternately named after their function: The bridge is also called the "dental sign," the under-stroke the "syllabicity sign", etc. Naming conventions of the International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) requires specific names for the symbols and diacritics used in the alphabet.