PAN PAN....OR PON PON

[Blue Stocking]

Those of you who are not sure of the pronunciation; don't say anything next time you are in distress--that'll show um whose boss, eh?

[IslandHopper]

This is the first time i have ever heard of "PAN PAN" been pronounced "PON PON"......

But i heard it here on CF so it must be true.....

[Anonymous7500]

If the need arises I will be using PAN-PON, PON-PAN.

[Kettlewell]

I think if you're really in trouble it might be better to say something like, "Cocaine, Cocaine, Cocaine." Homeland Security will be all over it in a flash.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by shorebird

When I took my radio course, I was also taught that when someone was interrupting a distress call, you could say "Silence mayday" or "Seelonce Mayday, either pronunciation was acceptable, so its possible either pronunciation of pan-pan is acceptable. Think of "pon-pon" as "pan-pan" but with a British accent?

Actually, it is "silence mayday", where silence is pronounced sealahnce with that same ah-sound of pan-pan

you can play it in English and French here: Google Translate

I actually once had to call "silence mayday" to stop chit-chat during a medical emergency. The guy died, which finally made them stop interrupting the VHF traffic with talk about mexican train dominoes. By then they could talk again because the emergency was over
Some people....

[symagellan]

Originally Posted by Teknav

Ok...the real french words...pronounced...
M'aider <mehdeh> help me in french...became MAYDAY
Panne <pahne> scare/panic in french...became PAN PAN <as in can-can>
Securite <securitay>...you get the idea

Thats it. Whatever your local trainer, wikipedia(!!!) or even USCG tells you.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by downunder

In Australia its Pan Pan.

Yes. And in Australia, "beer" has three syllables.

[goboatingnow]

Its a great pity that all countries that don't require VHF exams ,as these miss out on the opportunity to actually understand how all this stuff fits into the larger GMDSS picture and in fact what GMDSS is all about.

People think VHF exams are about VHfs , but only about 30% of the CEPT VHF SRC is specifically about the operation of a VHF. Most of the course covers epirbs , SARTs , Navtex, and GMDSS operates as a system and how each part plays a specific role.

Dave

[sabray]

If your from maine you can't possibly say car. You say cahhh. probably would be like pon pon even if a Mainer tried to use an a with a consonant they couldn't.
Im sure in West Virginia its a braahh not a braw. Doesnt matter cause they would just yell help. In california they have rides man and they don't wear bras. For California its like dude dude dude dude were like woooo not good dude.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by sabray

If your from maine you can't possibly say car. You say cahhh. probably would be like pon pon even if a Mainer tried to use an a with a consonant they couldn't.
Im sure in West Virginia its a braahh not a braw. Doesnt matter cause they would just yell help. In california they have rides man and they don't wear bras. For California its like dude dude dude dude were like woooo not good dude.

Which is all great but its not relevant. You are not attempting to speak a language , pro words are " sounds" that are meant to be pronounced as similarly as possible so that a multiple of people's who may have no common language can identify the sound and act accordingly. Hence they are not to be interpreted as a written word , just a sound.

"Silence finished " may mean absolutely nothing to say a mandarin speaker. Equally to a native English speaker regional accents and pronunciation peculiarities may mean the words are difficult for other English speakers to understand. Hence the fixation on be sound of a pro word , not the way you think you might locally pronounce any English word . Hence the term " "Seelonce finee" is specifically pronounced in a certain way to convey a sound that is recognisable.

Dave

[stevensc]

Originally Posted by snort

On to a related question: Is the dancing in Paris can can or is it con con?

Probably Can Can since Con means fool, idiot, or even that female portion you hope to get a glimps of under the Can Can. In Cajun French anyway.
Steve W

[RainDog]

Make sure you pronounce it right! Don't want to end up like these guys!

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

Why all this discussion, it is covered by international regulation. For the "it's always been" crowd, here's the ITU's 1968 version:

Source:http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-s/oth...044502PDFE.pdf

In the 2012 ITU regs it says the same thing:

So, between 1968 and 2012 it went from PAN PAN PAN to PAN PAN-PAN PAN-PAN PAN [edit to correct], but the pronunciation stayed the same (and is intended to be uniform around the world). If you want to hear someone's version of the correct pronunciation you can listen to it here: Google Translate

No point in arguing about Coast Guard or anybody else. Only argument is how the French word "panne" is properly pronounced.

This certainly settles it for me. My wife speaks French, and we spent some time trying to teach me the right way to day panne. It's closer to pan than pon, but sort of in between. Somebody else said pahn, which might be close...

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

Is that one of those "the French have no word for Entrepreneur" things .

Around here Sécurité is pronouced exactly as it is written (the "é" is pronouced as an "a" or an "ay"......Sa-cure-it-ay) - and means "Safety", not "Security" (it's a Safety Alert - precautionary).

Never heard of Pon Pon . Pan Pan is an alert to a problem, but not a call for a rescue (that's Mayday - named after the socialist workers bank holiday on 1st May ).

Securite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pan-pan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

..........lol, must type faster than GBN!

DOJ
The wikipedia link you gave includes a pronunciation guide that indicates that the 'a' is pronounced as it would be in 'father', so pon or pahn would be correct.

Help:IPA for English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adelie

[Adelie]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

That's the point it isn't. French was used to define the pronunciation, specifically because in English there are too many sloppy ways to pronounce things.

Hence As has been pointed out the correct pronunciation is as per the French , even of some mis interpret that.

Dave

Yes but then they use the English spelling because French spelling such a train-wreck.