AppleScript say command sometimes produces a file with no data

Problem

AppleScript produces an aiff file with no sound and zero (0) bytes. I am looping through many lists of text and using three different voices. When I run my script I get many files with no sound. There does not appear t be any common reason for the failure. I've tried using:

• delay n
• stopping with current voice
• wating for completion

Nothing has fixed the problem. Some of the files simply have no sound but if I say the text via my automator service then I do hear the output . So it seems that something is off in my repeat loop. Any thoughts on how to fix this (timing issue?) using AppleScript?

setalistto {}

set input to every paragraph of (readFile("textFileWithChineseWords"))

repeat with nextLine in input

if first character of nextLine is not "#" then

--^.*\s(.*)\s\[(.*)\]\s

--^.*\s(.*)\s\[

set output to (find text "^.*\\s(.*)\\s\\[(.*)\\]" in nextLine with regexp and string result)

set pinyin to (find text "\\[(.*)\\]" in nextLine with regexp and string result)

set pinyin to change "[" into "" in pinyin

set pinyin to change "]" into "" in pinyin

set pinyin to change space into "" in pinyin

set pinyin to change "," into "" in pinyin

--set pinyin to change "," into "" in pinyin

set alist to (split(output, space))

set simple to item 2 of alist

logsimple

saveAIFFFile(simple, pinyin)

--log simple

--log alist

--log pinyin

delay 0.3

end if

end repeat

on readFile(unixPath)

set foo to (open for access (POSIX file unixPath))

set txt to (read foo for (get eof foo) as «class utf8»)

close accessfoo

return txt

end readFile

on fileIsGood(filename)

set theItem to quoted form of POSIX path of filename

set output to false

--logtheItem

if exists (theItem) then

set fileSize to word 1 of (do shell script "du -sk " & theItem)

--log fileSize

if (fileSize is equal to 0) then return false

else

return false

end if

return output

end fileIsGood

on saveAIFFFile(msg, filename)

set cnfilname to ("/tmp" & filename & ".aiff") -- quoted form of POSIX path of

delay 4

set msg to change "，" into ", " in msg

saymsgusing "Ting-Ting" saving toPOSIX filecnfilname with stopping current speech and waiting until completion

--say "" with stopping current speech

if (not fileIsGood(cnfilname)) then

repeat until (fileIsGood(cnfilname))

--delay 4

set msg to change "，" into ", " in msg

saymsgusing "Ting-Ting" saving tocnfilname with stopping current speech and waiting until completion

end repeat

end if

end saveAIFFFile

to split(input, delimiter)

set AppleScript'stext item delimiters to delimiter

set someText to (every text item in input) as list

set AppleScript'stext item delimiters to {""} --> restore delimiters to default value

return someText

end split