NATO letter names (kulupu Nato la nimi sitelen)
Some time ago, I wondered how the letters that are not in Toki Pona can be represented. Sure, there is the written language, and you can already say stuff like ilo Discord, jan Trump (though it's less common than actually Tokiponizing names), but I'm especially curious about how that can be done in the spoken language.
I took a look at the NATO phonetic alphabet, which is designed to unambiguously narrate letter names over a spoken medium, such as radio. I also saw this post, serving as further inspiration. Without further ado, here are the letters!
| A-I | J-Q | S-Z |
|---|---|---|
| A - Apa | R - Lomijo | |
| B - Pajo | J - Sulije | S - Sijela |
| C - Sali | K - Kilo | T - Tanko |
| D - Teta | L - Lima | U - Unipon or Junipon |
| E - Eko | M - Maki | V - Wita |
| F - Poto | N - Nowenpa | W - Wiki |
| G - Ko | O - Oka | X - Ese |
| H - Ote | P - Papa | Y - Janki |
| I - Insija | Q - Kepe | Z - Sulu |
For the name of the letter G, which is "Golf", I am forced to use a word that is the same as a normal Toki Pona word. Though I wasn't forced into the same with M, ("Mike"). In the table, I specifically didn't use any headnouns, since those can be used for any headnoun. You could call Zulu time (UTC) tenpo Sulu.
So, it looks like the designers of the NATO phonetic alphabet did a good job of making the words less ambiguous, even in a small phonemic inventory like that of Toki Pona.