17. A circuit for retrieving information from a directory in response to a sequence of spoken characters in accordance with claim 16 wherein said directory store search means further comprises means for detecting the rightmost first occurring mismatched position of the current and all preceding directory store selected reference word sequence; means for storing the best candidate word corresponding to said detected rightmost first occurring mismatched position of the current and all preceding directory store selected reference word sequence searches; and wherein said modified candidate word generating means further comprises means responsive to the absence of a next most probable character in the leftmost position of the array for substitution for generating a third signal; means responsive to said third signal for forming a modified candidate word from said best candidate word by replacing the character in said detected rightmost first occurring mismatched position of all preceding directory searches of the best candidate word with an ignore mismatch character.
17. A circuit for retrieving information from a directory in response to a sequence of spoken characters in accordance with claim 16 wherein said directory store search means further comprises means for detecting the rightmost first occurring mismatched position of the current and all preceding directory store selected reference word sequence; means for storing the best candidate word corresponding to said detected rightmost first occurring mismatched position of the current and all preceding directory store selected reference word sequence searches; and wherein said modified candidate word generating means further comprises means responsive to the absence of a next most probable character in the leftmost position of the array for substitution for generating a third signal; means responsive to said third signal for forming a modified candidate word from said best candidate word by replacing the character in said detected rightmost first occurring mismatched position of all preceding directory searches of the best candidate word with an ignore mismatch character. 18. A circuit for retrieving information from a directory in response to a sequence of spoken characters in accordance with claim 17 wherein said modified candidate word generating means further comprises means responsive to the absence of a next most probable character in the leftmost position of the array and the presence of an ignore mismatch character in the stored candidate word of the immediately preceding directory store search for generating a fourth signal; and means responsive to said fourth signal for forming a modified candidate word by replacing the ignore mismatch character in the stored candidate word of the immediately preceding directory store search with the most probable character of that position in the array and placing the ignore mismatch character in the adjacent left position of the stored candidate word of the preceding directory store search.