1. A method for recognizing speech patterns, the method comprising: segmenting a word into a string of consecutive phonemes; storing a plurality of sequences of the phonemes, at least one of the sequences omitting at least one phoneme that is preceding a last one of the phonemes in the string and succeeding a first one of the phonemes in the string; comparing an utterance with the plurality of sequences of phonemes; and determining if a match exists between the utterance and a particular one of the sequences of phonemes.