1. A system for optimizing speech recognition procedures, comprising: initial language models each created by combining source models according to interpolation coefficients that define proportional relationships for combining said source models; a speech recognizer that utilizes said initial language models to process input development data for calculating word-error rates that each correspond to a different one of said initial language models; and an optimized language model selected from said initial language models by identifying an optimal word-error rate from among said word-error rates, said speech recognizer utilizing said optimized language model for performing said speech recognition procedures.