Patent ID: 7062482

Claim:
A computer implemented method comprising: receiving a search request at a server from a client over a network, the search request including one or more search terms; for each search term in the search request, the server identifying all diphthongs within each search term; the server determining one or more canonical representations for each diphthong based on pronunciation of each diphthong, the one or more canonical representations being in text formats; the server generating one or more canonical phonetic forms for each search term based on possible spellings of the one or more canonical representations of each diphthong, including determining whether any canonical representations exist for one or more letters of each search term, and including in the one or more canonical phonetic forms of any canonical representations exist for one or more letters of each search term; the server performing a phonetic keyword search in a database coupled to the server for each canonical phonetic form of the search term, wherein the canonical phonetic search is performed based on the canonical phonetic forms generated from the canonical representation of both letters and diphthongs of the search request; and the server generating an indication of search results based, on the phonetic keyword search.