18. Apparatus for matching words with a string of incoming labels in a pattern recognition system, the apparatus comprising: at least one phone machine; each phone machine being characterized by having (a) a plurality of states and transition paths between states, (b) transition probabilities T(i.fwdarw.j) representing the probability of state S.sub.j given a current state S.sub.i where S.sub.i and S.sub.j may be the same state or different states, and (c) actual label probabilities wherein each actual label probability p(y.sub.k) indicates the probability that a label y.sub.k is produced by a given phone machine at a given transition from one state to a subsequent state where k is a label identifying notation; and each phone machine including (a) means for assigning to each y.sub.k in said each phone machine a single value p'(y.sub.k) and (b) means for replacing each actual output probability p(y.sub.k) at each transition in a given phone machine by the single value p'(y.sub.k) assigned to the corresponding y.sub.k.
18. Apparatus for matching words with a string of incoming labels in a pattern recognition system, the apparatus comprising: at least one phone machine; each phone machine being characterized by having (a) a plurality of states and transition paths between states, (b) transition probabilities T(i.fwdarw.j) representing the probability of state S.sub.j given a current state S.sub.i where S.sub.i and S.sub.j may be the same state or different states, and (c) actual label probabilities wherein each actual label probability p(y.sub.k) indicates the probability that a label y.sub.k is produced by a given phone machine at a given transition from one state to a subsequent state where k is a label identifying notation; and each phone machine including (a) means for assigning to each y.sub.k in said each phone machine a single value p'(y.sub.k) and (b) means for replacing each actual output probability p(y.sub.k) at each transition in a given phone machine by the single value p'(y.sub.k) assigned to the corresponding y.sub.k. 20. Apparatus as in claim 18 wherein the length of the string of labels generable by each phone machine is characterized (a) as being between a minimum length and a maximum length and (b) as having a uniform length distribution wherein the probability for each length in the length distribution between the minimum and maximum length is a uniform value; the probability of label lengths less than the minimum length or greater than the maximum length being set as zero.