A couple of weeks a ago, I proposed a Texas phonetic alphabet to be our own version of the NATO phonetic alphabet, which is used by the military and police forces.
The NATO version uses “Alpha” for A, “Bravo” for B and “Charlie” for C, and so on. My version would use “Alamo” for A, “Brisket” for B and C would be for “Chili” or perhaps “Cowboy.”
I developed word suggestions for the entire alphabet and asked folks to write in to suggest better associative words for the letters. I’ll share a few responses:
Chris Gilbert wrote to say that he felt “C” should be “Cowboy” for sure and that D should be “Deer” instead of “Dallas.” He reasoned that “deer hunting is a big thing in Texas.” Chris has a point.
For E, Ross Diaz was okay with my choice of “Enchiladas,” but suggested I make it singular, as in “the whole enchilada.”
For F, I had “Football,” but Tracy Little made a case for “Fixin’ to.” She provided an example: “Fixin’ to feast on these fajitas.” Her reasoning is solid. Not all Texans are into football, but everybody uses “fixin’ to.”
For H, Ross Diaz, as a technical writer, said I shouldn’t use a letter to communicate a letter. So instead of “H-E-B,” he’d prefer “Hondo.”
For J, Chris Gilbert suggested that instead of “Jalapeño,” I should use “Jacinto” as, he said, “without San Jacinto, we wouldn’t be here.”
For O, Chris said that is has to be “Oil.” It is foundational to Texas. Ross put in a bid for “Ozarka” because the “O” is a long “O” up front.
For P, I got my biggest take down here from Jennie Ostertag. I thought “Pecos” would be great but she objected — and quite creatively. She wrote:
I thoroughly enjoyed your phenomenal piece on the Texas phonetic alphabet today but here I am pulled over in a parking lot to pursue a particularly pressing point regarding the letter P.
Did you purposefully pass over “pecan” to provoke panic and public participation? If so, please accept my praise. That’s a pretty powerful piece of programming.
I don’t mean to be pushy, but the oversight was positively perplexing. I petition you to promptly place “pecan” in its proper position.
Pecans are plentiful, prized, and proudly produced across the state. Passing it over feels positively preposterous.
How can I argue with that?
Last one: For the letter Q, I had “Quail.” Ross thought that “Queso” would be better, but the way a lot of Texans say “Queso,” it would also work for “K.”
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