73. The method of claim 71 comprising, the further step of: generating acoustic labels in response to the uttering of speech inputs wherein each label identifies a respective class of speech input, the classes being based on predefined features of speech input; and wherein the step of generating the first word score includes the step of: representing each vocabulary word by at least one probabilistic finite state phone machine, a representative phone machine having associated therewith (a) at least one transition, (b) a probability for each transition, and (c) actual label output probabilities each actual label output probability corresponding to the likelihood of the representative phone machine producing a given label at a given transition in response to an utterance, wherein each probability has a value assigned thereto.
73. The method of claim 71 comprising, the further step of: generating acoustic labels in response to the uttering of speech inputs wherein each label identifies a respective class of speech input, the classes being based on predefined features of speech input; and wherein the step of generating the first word score includes the step of: representing each vocabulary word by at least one probabilistic finite state phone machine, a representative phone machine having associated therewith (a) at least one transition, (b) a probability for each transition, and (c) actual label output probabilities each actual label output probability corresponding to the likelihood of the representative phone machine producing a given label at a given transition in response to an utterance, wherein each probability has a value assigned thereto. 74. The method of claim 73 wherein the step of generating the first word score includes the further steps of: performing a detailed acoustic match for the subject word based on (i) the assigned values of the probabilities and (ii) the generated labels; and evaluating the first word score for the subject word from the performed detailed acoustic match.