12. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein storing the index entry to represent the merged word hypothesis comprises encoding the merged word hypothesis into an integer value represented by a predetermined number of bits, a first plurality of the predetermined number of bits representing a time range for the merged speech recognition hypothesis, a second plurality of the predetermined number of bits representing a quantized time duration and a probability of the merged word hypothesis.
12. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein storing the index entry to represent the merged word hypothesis comprises encoding the merged word hypothesis into an integer value represented by a predetermined number of bits, a first plurality of the predetermined number of bits representing a time range for the merged speech recognition hypothesis, a second plurality of the predetermined number of bits representing a quantized time duration and a probability of the merged word hypothesis. 15. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 , and further comprising representing audio as a sequence of time ranges with at least one word hypothesis associated with each time range.