"affirmative/negative" v. "yes/no"

[Jonathan Lighter]

  1998 Robert Hemphill _Platoon: Bravo Company_ (Rpt. N.Y.: St. Martin's, 2000) 78 [ref. to 1966] :

  "Bravo 6, this is Falcon 6....Are you sure the whole sector was secured? Over." "Affirmative."
  "Falcon 6. Great job !...Anything further ? Over."
  "Negative."
  "Okay, Falcon 6 out."

  Hemphill served twenty-five years in the U.S. Army, retiring in 1989 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  He was Oliver Stone's company commander in Vietnam.

  JL


Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Dave Wilton
Subject: Re: "affirmative/negative" v. "yes/no"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On
> Behalf Of Dave Hause
> Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2006 8:13 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "affirmative/negative" v. "yes/no"
>
>
> I think most I've commonly heard "roger" used in place of "affirmative"
> (although it is supposed to mean "transmission received.") A list or the
> phonetic codes can be found at
>
http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Village/1367/military_alphabet_code.h
tml


That's the standard NATO phonetic alphabet adopted in 1957. Prior to that,
there were a variety of different ones used.
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq101-1.htm lists the ones used by the US
Navy over the years as well as the differences between them and the Army
versions. The British armed forces had their own variants.

And I can't recall ever hearing "affirmative" or "negative" in normal
conversation during my Army days--except if the speaker was joking. It's a
movie/TV thing.

--Dave Wilton
dave at wilton.net
http://www.wilton.net





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