SPEECH RECOGNITION BASED ON A MULTILINGUAL ACOUSTIC MODEL

Embodiments of the invention relate to methods for generating a multilingual acoustic model. A main acoustic model comprising a main acoustic model having probability distribution functions and a probabilistic state sequence model including first states is provided to a processor. At least one second acoustic model including probability distribution functions and a probabilistic state sequence model including states is also provided to the processor. The processor replaces each of the probability distribution functions of the at least one second acoustic model by one of the probability distribution functions and/or each of the states of the probabilistic state sequence model of the at least one second acoustic model with the state of the probabilistic state sequence model of the main acoustic model based on a criteria set to obtain at least one modified second acoustic model. The criteria set may be a distance measurement. The processor then combines the main acoustic model and the at least one modified second acoustic model to obtain the multilingual acoustic model.