imagine having to frequently spell out words because the spelling isnt obvious from the pronunciation...
this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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Imagine doing this with hanzis.
i cant. i dont really know how any of this works over there. abbreviations must also need a whole new strategy.
It's fucked, let me tell you.
no but seriously, how do chinese people spell out something when needed? do the characters have proper names? or do they kinda draw it in the air? i assume there's often a need to spell things out given the number of homophones and the number of different chinese languages.
Draw it in the air, name the radicals that comprise it, or say stuff like "Mao ze dong de Mao", which means the Mao Ze dong Mao 毛.
Meh, I'd rather use a phonetic alphabet which should ensure no mistakes are made.
Lima - Echo - Victor - India - Oscar - Sierra - Alpha
Might take longer to say but should be understood by the majority of people.
For numbers however I stick to 2 or 3 at a time for the same reasoning.
Ooh. You could use both!
Lima, Echo, Victor — India, Oscar, Sierra — Alpha.