18. Apparatus for recognizing an utterance as a series of predetermined reference words according to claim 17 wherein: said utterance segment determining means comprises means responsive to the endpoint of each preceding word position reference word series partial candidate utterance segment for generating a precessing sequence of beginning points for the utterance segment, and means jointly responsive to the set of reference word feature signals and the feature signals of the utterance from each of said beginning points for forming an utterance segment corresponding to the feature signals of each reference word.
18. Apparatus for recognizing an utterance as a series of predetermined reference words according to claim 17 wherein: said utterance segment determining means comprises means responsive to the endpoint of each preceding word position reference word series partial candidate utterance segment for generating a precessing sequence of beginning points for the utterance segment, and means jointly responsive to the set of reference word feature signals and the feature signals of the utterance from each of said beginning points for forming an utterance segment corresponding to the feature signals of each reference word. 19. Apparatus for recognizing an utterance as a series of predetermined reference words according to claim 18 wherein: said reference word selecting means comprises means responsive to the feature signals of each reference word and the feature signals of each utterance segment formed for said reference word for generating a signal representative of the vector distance between the reference word and formed utterance segment feature signals; and means for selecting the reference word and utterance segment corresponding thereto having the minimum distance signal and reference words and utterance segments corresponding thereto having distance signals within a preassigned distance of said minimum reference word distance signals to combine with the preceding word position partial candidate series.