Patent Document ID: 4730269
Application ID: 06846555

Base Claim:
1. A process for generating a digital signal representative of a word skeleton, said process comprising the steps of A. accepting a digital signal representative of a designated word in conventional graphic representation, B. generating from said designated word a linguistically salient word skeleton, said generating step comprising the steps of (i) omitting from the linguistically salient word skeleton produced thereby a selected alpha set, if any, of the designated word which lacks isomorphy with a phonetic representation of that selected set, and (ii) replacing with a different linguistic symbol another selected alpha set, if any, of the designated word which lacks isomorphy with a phonetic representation of that other selected set, C. producing an output digital signal representative of said linguistically salient word skeleton.

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Claim 2:
2. A process according to claim 1 in which said generating step includes the steps of selectively providing a four-way vocalic distinction in the skeleton of a short word and selectively providing only a two-way vocalic distinction in the skeleton of a long word.