It's one thing to accept that our alphabet has undergone changes over the centuries, but for some reason we were startled to realize that alphabetic phonetic codes—codes that use words to signify the letter in an effort to avoid miscommunication—do not all use the same words. (来源：www.EnglishCN.com)

Our investigation into why this might be led us first to a bewildering number of code collections, ranging from NATO phonetic codes, to the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) Recommended Phonetics code, to military codes, and to codes used by various police organizations, ham radio operators, and others.

Why do different groups use different words—and why do different phonetic codes exist? Sometimes, it is to avoid confusion. Delta can mean the letter "D," but to aviators, it can also refer to Delta Airlines. In other cases, words and sounds used in English are not easily spoken by speakers of other languages, so some codes have been recodified over time. Sometimes, it's just a matter of preference by code-makers and users. Finally, some groups prefer iconoclasm—or, at the least, to establish a code that sets them apart.

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