Listen
Texas Standard is an interactive program. We don’t just share news and information with you — we’re also interested in hearing *your perspective.
Our commentator WF Strong recently got in on this interactive element of Texas Standard when he solicited feedback for his Texas NATO alphabet idea.
The full transcript of this episode of Stories from Texas is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
The Texas Phonetic Alphabet – revisited – with help from fellow Texans.
By W. F. Strong
A couple of weeks a ago I proposed a Texas Phonetic Alphabet to be our own version of hte NATO Phonetic Alphabet, which is used by the military and police forces. The NATO version will use Alfa for A, Bravo for B and Charile for C, etc. My version would use Alamo for A, Brisket for B and C would be for chili or perhaps cowboy.
I developed word suggestions for the entire alphabet and asked folks to write in to suggest better associative words for the letters. I’ll share a few responses.
Chris Gilbert wrote to say that he felt “C” should be cowboy for sure and that D should be deer instead of Dallas. He reasoned that “deer hunting is a big thing in Texas.” Chris has a point.
For E, Ross Diaz was okay with my choice of Enchiladas, but suggested I make it singular, as in the whole enchilada.
For F I had Football, but Tracy Little made a case for “Fixin’ to.” She provided an example; “Fixin’ to feast on these fajitas.” Her reasoning is solid. Not all Texans are into football, but everybody uses “fixin’ to.”
- Ross Diaz, as a technical writer said I shouldn’t use a letter to commouncate a letter.So insead of H.E.B, he’d prefer Hondo.
For J, Chris Gilbert suggested that instead of Jalapeno, I should use Jacinto. As he said, without San Jacinto, we wouldn’t be here.
For O, Chris said that is has to be Oil. It is foundational to Texas. Ross put in a bid for Ozarka because the O is a long O up front.
- I I got my biggest take down here from Jennie Ostertag.I thought Pecos would be great but she objected – and quite creatively. She wrote:
I thoroughly enjoyed your phenomenal piece on the Texas phonetic alphabet today but here I am pulled over in a parking lot to pursue a particularly pressing point regarding the letter P.
Did you purposefully pass over pecan to provoke panic and public participation? If so, please accept my praise. That’s a pretty powerful piece of programming.
I don’t mean to be pushy, but the oversight was positively perplexing. I petition you to promptly place pecan in its proper position.
Pecans are plentiful, prized, and proudly produced across the state. Passing it over feels positively preposterous.
How can I argue with that?
Last one. For the letter Q I had Qail. Ross thought that Queso would be better, but the way a lot of Texans say Queso, it would also work for K.
I’m W. F. Strong . . .
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
