A system and method for a speech recognition technology that allows language models for a particular language to be customized through the addition of alternate pronunciations that are specific to the accent of the dictator, for a subset of the words in the language model. The system includes the steps of identifying the pronunciation differences that are best handled by modifying the pronunciations of the language model, identifying target words in the language model for pronunciation modification, and creating a accented speech file used to modify the language model.