Methods, systems, and machine-readable media are disclosed for processing a signal representing speech. According to one embodiment, processing a signal representing speech can comprise receiving a first frame of the signal, the first frame comprising a voiced frame. One or more cords can be extracted from the voiced frame based on occurrence of one or more events within the frame. For example, the one or more events can comprise one or more glottal pulses. The one or more cords can collectively comprise less than all of the frame. For example, each of the cords can begin with onset of a glottal pulse and extend to a point prior to an onset of neighboring glottal pulse but may exclude a portion of the frame prior to the onset of the neighboring glottal pulse. A phoneme for the voiced frame can be determined based on at least one of the extracted cords.