8. The system of claim 1 further comprising an automatic speech recognition system configured to receive at least one spoken utterance from a speaker, wherein the pronunciation generator is further configured to refine the native pronunciation of at least one of the non-native language words based, at least in part, on the at least one spoken utterance from the speaker.
1. A system for generating base forms for a non-native language in a speech-based system trained for processing a native language, the system comprising: a text processing system configured to receive input textual data containing both native language and non-native language words, the text processing system configured to identify the native language and non-native language words within the textual data, to generate a native phonetic transcription of the native language words using phonetic units of the native language, and to generate a non-native phonetic transcription of the non-native language words using phonetic units of the non-native language; a pronunciation generator configured to generate a native pronunciation of the non-native language words using phonetic units of the native language by mapping the phonetic units of the non-native phonetic transcription to acoustically similar phonetic units of the native language; and a memory configured to store the input textual data with the corresponding native phonetic transcription of the native language words and the mapped native pronunciation of the non-native language words in a native phonetic lexicon.