1. A process for generating a digital signal representative of a word skeleton, said process comprising the steps of A. accepting a digital signal representative of a designated word in conventional graphic representation, B. generating from said designated word a linguistically salient word skeleton, said generating step comprising the steps of (i) omitting from the linguistically salient word skeleton produced thereby a selected alpha set, if any, of the designated word which lacks isomorphy with a phonetic representation of that selected set, and (ii) replacing with a different linguistic symbol another selected alpha set, if any, of the designated word which lacks isomorphy with a phonetic representation of that other selected set, C. producing an output digital signal representative of said linguistically salient word skeleton.