1. In a speech analyzer having a set of stored reference pattern templates t=1,2, . . . ,V each comprising a time frame sequence i=1,2, . . . , It of acoustic feature signals including an end frame i=It representative of an identified reference pattern, a method for recognizing an unknown utterance as a string of reference patterns e.g. t1,t2, . . . ,t3 comprising the steps of: producing signals representative of the time frame sequence j=1,2 . . . ,J of acoustic features of the utterance responsive to the acoustic pattern of the utterance; generating at least one reference pattern string e.g. t1,t2, . . . ,t3 responsive to the acoustic feature signals of the time frame sequence j=1,2, . . . ,J of the utterance and the acoustic feature signals of the time frame sequence i=1,2, . . . ,It of the reference patterns t=1,2, . . . ,V; and identifying the utterance as one of said reference pattern strings e.g. t1,t2, . . . ,t3; wherein the step of producing signals representative of the time frame sequence j=1,2, . . . ,J of acoustic features of the utterance comprises receiving the currently occurring time frame portion of the utterance; generating a signal j identifying the time frame in which the current portion of the utterance occurs in the succession of utterance time frames j=1,2, . . . ,J responsive to the currently occurring portion of the utterance; and producing a signal representative of the acoustic features of jth frame portion of the utterance responsive to the received currently occurring time frame portion of the utterance; said step of generating at least one reference pattern string e.g. t1,t2, . . . ,t3 responsive to the acoustic feature signals of the time frame sequence of the utterance and acoustic feature signals of the time frame sequence i=1,2, . . . ,Iv of the reference patterns comprises; responsive to the producing of the acoustic feature signals of the currently occurring portion of the utterance in the current time frame j, performing the following steps (a) producing a set of signals identifying levels L=1,2, . . . ,LMAX, each level corresponding to the position of a reference pattern in the at least one reference pattern string; (b) time registering the acoustic feature signals of the current time frame j portion of the utterance with the acoustic feature signals of the time frames i=1,2, . . . ,It of each reference pattern for each level L=1,2, . . . ,LMAX responsive to the acoustic feature signals of the current time frame portion of the utterance and the acoustic feature signals of the time frame portions of the reference patterns; and (c) producing a set of cumulative correspondence signals for the time registration path ending time frames It of the reference patterns at levels L=1,2, . . . LMAX for the currently occurring time frame j portion of the utterance; and the step of identifying the utterance as one of said reference pattern strings e.g. t1,t2, . . . ,t3 comprises generating signals representative of reference pattern strings after the formation of the time registration path and time registration path correspondence signals of the levels for the last utterance time frame J responsive to the time registration path and time registration path cumulative correspondence signals for the reference pattern ending time frames It of levels L=1,2, . . . ,LMAX of the utterance portion time frames j=1,2, . . . J.
2. In a speech analyzer having a set of stored reference pattern templates t=1,2, . . . V each comprising a time frame sequence i=1,2, . . .IR of acoustic feature signals including an end frame i=It representative of an identified reference pattern, a method for recognizing an unknown utterance as a string of reference patterns e.g. t1,t2, . . . t3 according to claim 1 wherein said time registering step comprises: generating a set of signals representative of the correspondence between the acoustic feature signals of the currently occurring time frame j portion of the utterance and the acoustic feature signals of the time frames i=1,2, . . . ,It of each reference pattern; and producing a set of signals representative of the time registration path between the acoustic feature signals of the time frames i=1,2, . . . ,It of each reference pattern and the acoustic feature signals of the currently occurring time frame j portion and the preceding time frame portions of the uttterance j=j-1,j-2, . . . ,1 responsive to the correspondence signals generated for the the currently occurring time frame j portion of the utterance and the correspondence signals generated for the preceding utterance time frame portions j=j-1, j-2, . . . ,1.