System and method for pronunciation modeling
View Patent ↗Systems, computer-implemented methods, and tangible computer-readable media for generating a pronunciation model. The method includes identifying a generic model of speech composed of phonemes, identifying a family of interchangeable phonemic alternatives for a phoneme in the generic model of speech, labeling the family of interchangeable phonemic alternatives as referring to the same phoneme, and generating a pronunciation model which substitutes each family for each respective phoneme. In one aspect, the generic model of speech is a vocal tract length normalized acoustic model. Interchangeable phonemic alternatives can represent a same phoneme for different dialectal classes. An interchangeable phonemic alternative can include a string of phonemes.
1. A method comprising:
receiving user speech;
identifying a user dialect in the user speech;
selecting a set of phoneme alternatives representing the user dialect from a pronunciation model generated by operations of:
(i) identifying a generic model of speech composed of phonemes;
(ii) identifying a family of interchangeable phonemic alternatives for a phoneme in the generic model of speech;
(iii) labeling each interchangeable phonemic alternative in the family as referring to the phoneme; and
(iv) generating a pronunciation model which substitutes the family of interchangeable phonemic alternatives for the phoneme; and
recognizing, via a processor, the user speech using the selected set of phoneme alternatives in the pronunciation model.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the user dialect in the user speech further comprises:
recognizing the user speech with a plurality of dialect models;
eliminating dialect models which do not phonemically match the user speech until a single dialect model remains; and
identifying the remaining single dialect model as the user dialect model.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generic model of speech is a vocal tract length normalized acoustic model.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein interchangeable phonemic alternatives represent a same phoneme for different dialectal classes.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein an interchangeable phonemic alternative comprises a string of phonemes.
6. A system comprising:
a processor; and
a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving user speech;
identifying a user dialect in the user speech;
selecting a set of phoneme alternatives representing the user dialect from a pronunciation model generated by operations of:
(i) identifying a generic model of speech composed of phonemes;
(ii) identifying a family of interchangeable phonemic alternatives for a phoneme in the generic model of speech;
(iii) labeling each interchangeable phonemic alternative in the family as referring to the phoneme; and
(iv) generating a pronunciation model which substitutes the family of interchangeable phonemic alternatives for the phoneme; and
recognizing the user speech using the selected set of phoneme alternatives in the pronunciation model.
7. The system of claim 6 , wherein identifying the user dialect in the user speech further comprises:
recognizing the user speech with a plurality of dialect models;
eliminating dialect models which do not phonemically match the user speech until a single dialect model remains; and
identifying the remaining single dialect model as the user dialect model.
8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the generic model of speech is a vocal tract length normalized acoustic model.
9. The system of claim 6 , wherein interchangeable phonemic alternatives represent a same phoneme for different dialectal classes.
10. The system of claim 6 , wherein an interchangeable phonemic alternative comprises a string of phonemes.
11. A computer-readable storage device having instructions stored which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
receiving user speech;
identifying a user dialect in the user speech;
selecting a set of phoneme alternatives representing the user dialect from a pronunciation model generated by operations of:
(i) identifying a generic model of speech composed of phonemes;
(ii) identifying a family of interchangeable phonemic alternatives for a phoneme in the generic model of speech;
(iii) labeling each interchangeable phonemic alternative in the family as referring to the phoneme; and
(iv) generating a pronunciation model which substitutes the family of interchangeable phonemic alternatives for the phoneme; and
recognizing the user speech using the selected set of phoneme alternatives in the pronunciation model.
12. The computer-readable storage device of claim 11 , wherein identifying the user dialect in the user speech further comprises:
recognizing the user speech with a plurality of dialect models;
eliminating dialect models which do not phonemically match the user speech until a single dialect model remains; and
identifying the remaining single dialect model as the single user dialect model.
13. The computer-readable storage device of claim 11 , wherein the generic model of speech is a vocal tract length normalized acoustic model.
14. The computer-readable storage device of claim 11 , wherein interchangeable phonemic alternatives represent a same phoneme for different dialectal classes.
15. The computer-readable storage device of claim 11 , wherein an interchangeable phonemic alternative comprises a string of phonemes.