The paper presents a general engineering model of a hybrid system for speech recognition and information retrieval. The speech recognition part consists of a low level neural network module for phoneme recognition and a higher level fuzzy reasoning module for word recognition and language modelling. There are several features such systems are characterised by, namely: adaptability, i.e. the system is adaptable to new speakers and accents; dealing with ambiguity during the recognition process; extendability, i.e. new modules can be introduced to the system at a later stage and the dictionary is extendable. A case study of building an experimental English to Maori talking dictionary for a small dictionary of words and speaker independent mode is reported. Subject Terms: natural language interfaces; natural languages; speech recognition; language translation; word processing; information retrieval; neural nets; intelligent human computer interfaces; case study; English to Maori talking dictionary; engineering model; hybrid system; speech recognition; information retrieval; low level neural network module; phoneme recognition; higher level fuzzy reasoning module; word recognition; language modelling; extendability; speaker independent mode