1. A method of identifying words in a speech segment, said method comprising: obtaining, by a device, a speech segment; and determining, by the device, one or more words of the speech segment, said determining, for a word, comprising: identifying one or more soundlets within the word and for a soundlet: analyzing a contour of at least a portion of a sound wave of the soundlet to determine one or more variations within the contour; assigning one or more features to the one or more variations; and mapping the one or more features to one or more sound constructs, wherein the one or more sound constructs are at least part of the word.