LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Numbers: Languages
built 643 days ago
Most numbers stations heard in North America transmit in Spanish. Other languages often heard include English, German, and scattered other languages such as Chinese and Russian. Almost all will use a woman's voice, although on rare occasions a man's voice might be used. You will quickly notice that the numbers you hear sound much like the "intercept" messages used by telephone companies to give out new numbers when you dial a discontinued number, and a similar technology is obviously in use to generate numbers messages.
Source:
Hundreds of millions of English speakers agree that the numbers are one, two, three, etc. But only a minority of languages are standardized in this way. For unwritten languages, different linguists' word lists may be strikingly different. Their ears may not be attuned to the language; or there may be dialectal variation, or even sound change. Here's a couple examples, one from Asia, one from Africa:
Source:
For decades, SWLs have been hearing stations that do nothing but read blocks of numbers, usually using a woman's voice, in a variety of languages and on innumerable different frequencies. All available evidence indicates that some of these transmissions may be somehow connected to espionage activities. These are the numbers stations, the most enduring mystery on the shortwave bands.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Languages