During World War II, the United States military used a modified version of the Joint Army / Navy Phonetic Alphabet (JANAP). This was adopted in 1941 and continued to be used until 1957 when it was ...

It wasn’t until 1956 that the International Telecommunication Union approved the alphabet as we know it today. There are also phonetic numbers that the military uses to avoid confusion.

“It’s called the Phonetic alphabet that’s a legitimate thing that people know and learn,” gushed Brogan. “What the f–k, mind is blown!” Getty Images/iStockphoto ...

Chances are you've heard the phonetic alphabet before. It's when a phone technician will use terms like, "T as in Thomas, R as in Roger," etc to make sure they're hearing you correctly.

But this is not the only version of a phonetic alphabet to have existed, with the first German version going back to the 1890 Berlin telephone book, in which every letter was assigned a number. In ...