Benjamin Franklin was many things. Politician, scientist, inventor, printer author, he was a visionary whose ideas helped shape America. But he also had some notions that, while founded on sound logic ...

Consider yourself an expert when it comes to telecommunications methods, alphabets, or other obscure—but still widely used in many professions—ways of communication? Then you’ll want to test your ...

Phonetic reduction, which includes mumbled, sloppy or generally less articulated speech, also occurs in phrases that serve other social purposes, such as self-talk, expressing uncertainty or closing ...

Every writing system represents speech a little differently, and no system is completely faithful to how words are actually pronounced. For over a century, the International Phonetic Alphabet has ...

Every time an aircraft checks in with air traffic control, pilots identify themselves using a unique call sign, something like “Delta November Three Seven Two,” not “DN372”. They also exchange ...

Did you know that there is a military alphabet? This is a special phonetic alphabet that is used by the military to communicate over radios and other devices. The military alphabet was created in ...

Sometimes words just have to be spelled for others. I’ve been on phone conversations where the person on the other end is spelling for me and it’s painful. “Was that a ‘b’ or a ‘p’?” Sometimes they’ll ...