Patent ID: 7113908

Claim:
Method for recognizing speech comprising the steps of: providing a pronunciation space (PS) including possible pronunciation rules and/or sets thereof, wherein said pronunciation space (PS) includes an approximate set of pronunciation rules (APR) determined and/or generated in accordance with a current pronunciation (CP) of a current speaker, and providing at least one current lexicon (CL) or a dictionary of pronunciation variants, which is employed for recognition, adapted to said current speaker by applying said approximate set of pronunciation rules (APR) to it, thereby including speaker specific pronunciation variants to said current lexicon (CL); projecting said current pronunciation (CP) into said pronunciation space (PS); calculating distance values (d 1 , . . . ,d 4 ) with respect to Eigenpronunciations (E 1 , . . . ,E 4 ); determining a lowest distance value (d 4 ); and choosing a set of pronunciation rules as said approximate set of pronunciation rules APR which correspond to the Eigenpronunciations (E 4 ) being assigned to said lowest distance value (d 4 ).