# Airline Speak

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-speak/224177>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 12, 2004, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-speak/224177 "2004-01-12T15:03:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ponster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponster/32/17081_2.png) [@Ponster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponster)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2004, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-speak/224177/1 "2004-01-12T15:03:35Z")

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My most wonderful girlfriend (who will no doubt come across this thread!) gave me a book last night from Bill Bryson called ‘_Mother Tongue_’ where he says…

> [@](#):
>
> “For the airlines of 157 nations (out of 168 in the world), [English] is the agreed International language of discourse”

I was always under the impression that it was the ‘International language of discourse’ for ALL airlines. Who are those that don’t use English and what happens when they try to land in JFK? 🙂

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**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/airline-speak/224177/2 "2004-01-13T05:21:23Z")

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The [ICAO](http://www.icao.int/index.cfm) is the international body that deals with this kind of stuff. [All pilots](http://www.icao.int/icao/en/trivia/peltrgFAQ.htm#q9) on international flights have to be able to speak with the controller on the ground.

In theory, I guess that they could both speak in Klingon, but in practice it’s either English unless they share a common mother tongue.