Airspeak

English

Etymology

air +‎ -speak

Noun

Airspeak (uncountable)

1. A controlled form of natural language based on English and designed to facilitate communication between aircraft pilots and air traffic controllers.
   • 1983, Seatrade, volume 13, page 107:

     It is always, apparently, the UK, US and Australian aircrews who are criticised for going outside the codified bounds of 'airspeak'.

   • 1994, Gunilla Bradley, Human Factors in Organizational Design and Management-IV:

     The advantage of a formalized language is rapid communication and the avoidance of ambiguity in applied settings tough, for instance, the use of "affirm" instead of "yes", and one request for "clearance to bypass your class" testifies to the inappropriateness of "Airspeak" as an acceptable mode of social communication!

   • 2012, David Crystal, English as a Global Language, page 109:

     Even within a single language, terminology and phrasing need to be standardized, to avoid ambiguity, and great efforts have been made to develop such a system for English, widely called 'Airspeak'.