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I mean, there is a well known 'substitution' for number "0" with 'ou' sound. Like, '107' in military communications will be pronounced as 'one-ou-seven'. Is there similar kind of substitution for letter "W", say, in aforementioned military comms? Some way that allows to pronounce it much quicker?

Taipen
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    People tend to just shorten it naturally, as 'dubyou' or 'dubya'. The military use some kind of able baker charlie thing where it is pronounced 'whiskey'. – Mitch Nov 09 '13 at 22:21
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    @Mitch: able baker's the old phonetic alphabet ;-) The new one's alfa, bravo, charlie, delta... – Jim Nov 09 '13 at 23:02
  • I am often amused by the acronym "WWU" that represents Western Washington University, in Bellingham where I live. "WWU" takes three letters, but seven syllables /'dəbəlyu'dəbəlyu'yu/, whereas Western Washington takes only five syllables /'wɛstərn'wɔʃɪŋtən/. I usually just pronounce "WWU" as /'wuwu/; that's common enough that everybody understands. – John Lawler Nov 09 '13 at 23:23

1 Answers1

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There is no other known pronunciations, aside from the rapid pronunciation duhb-yuh. You might portray a different meaning if you used other words/sounds to represent the standard pronunciation. Whiskey is widely accepted to represent the letter.

Lester Nubla
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