AUDIBLE LANGUAGE RECOGNITION BY SUCCESSIVE VOCABULARY REDUCTION

A syllable or phoneme at the beginning of a word input by voice is subjected to voice recognition. Using the recognized syllable or phoneme as a key, applicable data is retrieved from a plurality of groups of vocabulary data established in advance. The retrieved vocabulary data is displayed to notify the operator of the data. If only one item of vocabulary data has been retrieved, predetermined processing is activated based upon the content of the vocabulary data. If the retrieved vocabulary data is plural in number, then the plural items of vocabulary data are placed in a population that is to undergo search and retrieval next, and retrieval based upon the next syllable or phoneme is carried out.