PAN PAN....OR PON PON

[Kettlewell]

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

[Bluewaters2812]

Haha Scimitar, yeah, I've seen those before but I will concede that if they did the same exercise in many other countries across the world they will probably find just as many "uninformed" specimens lol.

[Dsanduril]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

That's the whole, entire point. It's not a "foolish" consistency, it is a consistency with a very definite reason. If we all pronounce the key words in a uniform way they can be understood by someone at the other end regardless of no common language. In theory on hearing Mayday you:

1. shut up
2. listen
3. attempt to determine location (by listening, DF, etc.)

If you, I, or anyone else uses some non-standard word or pronuciation then other people on the same channel may not realize that we have priority traffic that takes precedence over there chatter.

[steamgoat]

Interesting, Wikipedia also mentions that a 'backronym' of PAN is
Possible Assistance Needed or
Pay Attention Now
Both seem to make sense.

[Richard_W]

A bacronym or backronym is a phrase specially constructed so that an acronym fits an existing word. ... Backronyms may be invented with serious or humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology.

Backronym: invented, felicitous, wrong, misinterpreted ... let's not go there.

We have enough trouble in this topic to recognize that the official proper spelling is PAN PAN. The mnemonic is derived from the French word panne, and sounds like /ˈpɑːn ˈpɑːn/ ... subject to speaker accent and condition.

For people who know any of the languages that uses pronunciations based on or closely derived from Latin, it's very simple ... just say PAN PAN using Latin pronunciation. The PAN mnemonic is a written equivalent of the sound /ˈpɑːn/.

The same process is used to transcribe sounds from non-Latin alphabet languages such as Japanese, Chinees, and Arabic. The problem for English speaking folks is that the sounds, especially vowels, are pronounced very differently in English than using Latin pronunciation.

If one wants to hear the difference, just ask non-English European to say IKEA and compare it with American English pronunciation ... two different sounds.

[micah719]

We Aussies have no trouble pronouncing Pan. Luckily it wasn't Pin or our Tasman neighbours would be defending their Puns.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Richard_W

For people who know any of the languages that uses pronunciations based on or closely derived from Latin, it's very simple ... just say PAN PAN using Latin pronunciation.

Yikes. All Latin monophthong vowels represent at least two phonemes. That's probably the ultimate source of this silly argument in the first place.

[sneuman]

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!

Agreed. The CG on the Chesapeake, however, say "pon, pon." Dunno why.

http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/g/panne.htm

[micah719]

The CG were in need of assistance on the Cheaspeake?? When did this happen?

[Richard_W]

Hard for me to say what "pon" sounds like coming from native American English speaker mouth ... but it might be the correct sound ... it just gets transcribed by native American English listener as "pon". If it is any close to what the pilot says in the first video few pages back, it's close enough.

It's like but in reverse, when American wants to buy AUDI in Europe ... problem is nobody knows what "ODI" brand is, or shop in IKEA and nobody knows what "AIKIYA" is unless they speak English.

[sabray]

I am pretty sure Ikea is Swedish for Hell. I told the honey to go to hell and she came back with a box that was supposedly a bookcase. I say hell,hell hell. None of this transpired using a VHF all is irrelevant.

[Richard_W]

AGREE ... who cares if it sounds to one "pan" or "pon", just say /ˈpɑːn/ ... ... learn to say what the procedure calls for.

BTW the "coast guard, coast guard, i'm in trouble ..." would work as well. The CG would respond regardless of the procedural mistake.

[sabray]

of course just for fun

German Coastguard 'thinking' - YouTube

[Richard_W]

LOL ... that is the perfect illustration of the problem just in reverse ... i'm sinking ...

[DSDman]

Speaking of names and illiteracy and the general decline of the western nations, a friend of mine is a public school teacher and was taken aback by one of her students names, pronounced, She tha aed, but spelled, shithead! No lie.