1. In a speech compression system including an analog-to-digital converter, an electronic calculation unit, and an electronic memory device, a method for encoding an analog speech signal comprising the steps of: (a) extracting, using the analog-to-digital converter and the electronic calculation unit, a first sequence of digital samples from said analog speech signal; (b) summing, using the electronic calculation unit, each digital sample in the first sequence with the previous digital samples to obtain a cumulative sum sequence of sample point sums; (c) determining, using the electronic calculation unit, the logarithm of each sample point sum in said sum sequence to obtain a sequence of logarithms; (d) summing, using the electronic calculation unit, each logarithm with the previous logarithms in said sequence of logarithms to obtain a cumulative sequence of summed logarithms; (e) obtaining, using the electronic calculation unit, a scaled average of the summed logarithms from step (d); and (f) storing the scaled average obtained in said (e) step in the electronic memory device; and wherein said scaled average represents said analog speech signal in compressed form.