What does C mean in the phonetic alphabet?

Answer 1

There are two main 'phonetic' alphabets:

# The 'NATO phonetic alphabet' used in telephony when spelling a word out loud by using commonly understood alternative words for the letters, e.g. Alpha = A, Bravo = B, Charlie = C, Delta = D etc. The word 'day' is spoken as 'delta alpha yankee'.

# The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) used as a guide for pronunciation of foreign words. The words are converted to a group of symbols that represent the appropriate consonant, vowel and dipthong (two vowel) sounds.

The IPA symbol set for English pronunciation does not contain a symbol that looks like the letter 'C'.

In English words the letter 'c' is pronounced differently in different words.

The following examples show this (without using IPA symbols):

* hard c: cat is pronounced kat * like s, but hissed!: licence = lyssenss (not lykenz!) * like the ch in 'church': cello = chellow

When the letter c is combined with another consonant, sometimes a new sound is required:

* soft ch = 'ch' as in church * guttural aspirated 'ch', as in loch (Scottish)

* hard ch = k: chronology = kronology

* ch = sh: champagne = shampain, chateau = shatow, chalet = shalay

Sometimes the letter 'c' is silent, or obsolete:

* pick = pik

IN VIEW OF THE FACT that the English pronunciation of many letters and words is inconsistent, it is very useful for learners of English to see the words written phonetically. In this way they can see how each word should be pronounced, rather than be misled by how they are spelt/spelled!