This high-level collection of invited tutorial papers and contributed papers is based on a NATO workshop held in 1997. It surveys and discusses the latest techniques in the field of speech science and technology with a view to working toward a unifying theory of speech pattern processing. The tutorials presenting significant leading-edge research are a valuable resource for researchers and others wishing to extend their knowledge of the field. Most of the papers are sorted into two groups, approaching respectively from the acoustic and the linguistic perspectives. The acoustic papers include...