Patent ID: 8065144

Claim:
A computer-implemented method in which a computer system initiates execution of software instructions stored in memory, the computer-implemented method comprising: generating a set of estimated pronunciations from text spellings of a set of acoustic training words, each pronunciation comprising a grouping of subword units at least some of which are common to two or more languages, the set of acoustic training words comprising at least a first word and a second word, the first word having a pronunciation based on utterances of native speakers of a first language, the second word having a pronunciation based on utterances of native speakers of a second language; mapping sequences of sound associated with utterances of each of the acoustic training words against the estimated pronunciation associated with each of the acoustic training words; using the mapping of sequences of sound to estimated pronunciations to generate a single acoustic subword model for each of the subword units in the grouping of subwords, the acoustic subword model comprising a sound model and a subword unit; and using the single acoustic subword model for speech recognition.