I thought 5 was supposed to be pronounced "fife" but this page only seems to hal... | Hacker News

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		raldi on Oct 23, 2024 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: An Illustrated Guide to Maritime Signal Flags I thought 5 was supposed to be pronounced "fife" but this page only seems to half say that. ("faif" in the first row, but "five" in the second)

ahazred8ta on Oct 25, 2024 [–]

IIRC in WWII the UK settled on 'fife' and nine, while the US went with five and 'niner'. Arthur C. Clarke's novel Glide Path described the adoption of fife.

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