9. A method according to claim 8, wherein said detecting a minimum dissimilarity and storing the number of the corresponding reference template updates and stores the number of the reference template corresponding to the minimum dissimilarity each time said speech frame number is updated; and the number of said matching paths for each of said reference templates is 3.
9. A method according to claim 8, wherein said detecting a minimum dissimilarity and storing the number of the corresponding reference template updates and stores the number of the reference template corresponding to the minimum dissimilarity each time said speech frame number is updated; and the number of said matching paths for each of said reference templates is 3. 12. A method according to claim 9, further including the steps of: providing path selection information to specify one or two of said matching paths corresponding to said speech frame number and the number of said reference template, only if said speech frame number is in a predetermined interval to be discriminated of a desired one of said reference templates, said interval being provided for each of said reference templates to indicate an area containing many pronounced lengths of words of the category of the reference templates in their distribution; generating selectively one or two of said path selection information, dependent on the reference template, each time said speech frame is updated; and said step of detecting a minimum dissimilarity and storing the number of the corresponding reference template, updates and stores the number of the reference template corresponding to a minimum dissimilarity out of the dissimilarities corresponding to said path selection information in each said reference template, each time said speech frame number is updated.