Dynamic speech sharpening

A system for reducing a search space for a recognition grammar used when interpreting natural language speech utterances, the system comprising:

• at least one input device that receives an utterance from a user and generates an electronic signal corresponding to the utterance;
• and
• a speech interpretation engine that receives the electronic signal corresponding to the utterance, the speech interpretation engine operable to:
• create a phonemic representation of acoustic elements associated with an acoustic speech model, the acoustic elements including at least an unstressed central vowel and plurality of phonemic elements;
• represent syllables associated with the acoustic speech model using the phonemic representation, each of the represented syllables including a series of acoustic elements;
• construct an acoustic grammar that contains transitions between the acoustic elements of the represented syllables, the transitions constrained according to phonotactic rules of the acoustic speech model;
• and
• use the unstressed central vowel as a linking element between sequential phonemic elements contained in the constructed acoustic grammar.