We present a method for analyzing character errors for use with character-based, end-to-end ASR systems, as used herein for investigating dialectal speech. As end-to-end systems are able to produce novel spellings, there exists a possibility that the spelling variants produced by these systems can capture phonological information beyond the intended target word. We therefore first introduce a way of guaranteeing that similar words and characters are paired during alignment, thus ensuring that any resulting analysis of character errors is founded on sound substitutions. Then, from such a careful character alignment, we find trends in system-generated spellings that align with known phonological features of Norwegian dialects, in particular, “r” and “l” confusability and voiceless stop lenition. Through this analysis, we demonstrate that cues from acoustic dialectal features can influence the output of an end-to-end ASR systems.

KUNSTI is the Norwegian national language technology programme, running 2001-2006 inclusive. The goal of the programme is to boost Norwegian language technology research. In this paper we describe the background, the objectives, the methodology applied in the management of the programme, the projects selected, and our first conclusions. We also describe national programmes form Sweden, France and Germany and compare objectives and methods.