The Anti-Phonetic Alphabet

3 as in Hen3ry A as in aisle

aye

are N as in Nguyen ("when")

numble B as in bdellium (de-) O as in oozy C as in cue P as in phew

psi

ptomaine D as in double-u

djinn Q as in quay E as in eh

eye

eau

ewe R as in rubricate F as in filly

faro S as in see G as in gneiss

gnu

ghoti T as in tsar

oolong H as in heir

hors d'ouevres U as in urb

urn

URL I as in irrupt V as in vizard

viaduct [in your best

Chico Marx accent] J as in junta W as in why K as in knot X as in xi

xerophyte L as in llama Y as in why

you M as in mnemonic Z as in zweiback

The only decent L we've come up with relies on Spanish pronunciation. I've resisted the urge to use "T as in tsar, C as in czar," but "T as in oolong" was too good to resist.

X as in almost anything except "X-ray" has the potential for confusion, but "X is for Xylophone" is too canonical to be useful here.

I compiled this material from the contributions of lots of people with spare time and slightly warped minds. Thanks in particular to Joshua Burton and Oliver Xymoron. We take no responsibility for the results if you use any of the suggestions here for any purpose whatsoever.

If you enjoyed this, you may also be interested in seeing the alphabet in alphabetical order.

Suggestions for improving this list can be sent to the usual address.

If you're done here, take a look at my home page.

Copyright 2000, Vicki Rosenzweig