Testing words in a pronunciation lexicon

A computer system for testing words defined in a pronunciation lexicon, comprising:

• an automatic speech recognition system (ASR) for using the pronunciation lexicon, the ASR system configured to generate a plurality of test sentences which can be accepted by a language model used in the ASR system, the test sentences including a plurality of the words defined in the pronunciation lexicon;
• and
• a text-to-speech system configured to generate variations of speech data corresponding to each of the test sentences;
• wherein the automatic speech recognition system is further configured to:
• obtain a plurality of texts generated by recognizing the variations of speech data,
• construct a word graph, using the plurality of texts, for each of the test sentences, wherein one or more words in the word graph correspond to one or more words defined in the pronunciation lexicon, and
• determine whether all, or parts of words in a test sentence of the test sentences are present in a path of the word graph derived from the test sentence.

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium including computer usable code implemented in one more of computers, for testing words defined in a pronunciation lexicon used in an automatic speech recognition system, comprising:

• computer usable code for:
• obtaining a plurality of test sentences which can be accepted by a language model used in the automatic speech recognition system, the test sentences including a plurality of the words defined in the pronunciation lexicon;
• obtaining variations of speech data corresponding to each of the test sentences;
• obtaining a plurality of texts generated by recognizing the variations of speech data;
• constructing a word graph, using the plurality of texts, for each of the test sentences, wherein one or more words in the word graph correspond to one or more words defined in the pronunciation lexicon;
• and
• determining whether all, or parts of words in a test sentence of the test sentences are present in a path of the word graph derived from the test sentence.