Problem Using Spoken Track Service

I am trying to create spoken tracks using the service Add to iTunes as a Spoken Track. Early last year I created a large number of spoken tracks using this service. Recently I have been plagued with a problem where the service seems to not work properly on some files. I write what I want in Pages, highlight the text, then select Services >Add to iTunes as a Spoken Track. This produces a small window where I can change the name or location and select continue. I always keep the default settings and simply select continue. When it works it will create an .M4A file in the /Users/kesl/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Unknown Artist/Unknown Album directory. The resulting .M4A file can then be played in iTunes or an App like VLC. When it doesn't work properly it creates an .AIFF in the /Users/kesl/Music directory and will not create a second file. Attempting to create a second file produces a revolving beach ball on the small 'continue' window that never stops.

I have analyzed the situation a bit and I have learned that the procedure uses the com.apple.speech.speechsynthesisd process. This process create the .AIFF file in the Music directory and then, when it works, iTunes converts the .AIFF file to .M4A and moves to the Unknown Album directory in accordance with the iTunes setting Keep iTunes Media folder organized. When the procedure doesn't work, the com.apple.speech.speechsynthesisd process is hung and will not continue until I reboot, delete the .AIFF file or force the com.apple.speech.speechsynthesisd process to quit. Every attempt on some files produces the same result. I have check things like grammar, retyped the data, added and deleted punctuation, and other things that I thought might cause the hang. I have even deleted paragraphs until I have pin-pointed the offending paragraph, then attempted to process that paragraph separately and then it works. But put the paragraph back in to the complete document and again failure. I have found that sometimes there are two or three offending paragraphs.

I want to know what causes this situation and how to resolve the problem. I have copied the resulting data form the 'Open Files and Ports' tab of the com.apple.speech.speechsynthesisd process. That data is below here. Note that the differences between the working procedure and the non-working procedure seem to appear at the end of the data...

WORKS

cwd
/
txt
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/SpeechSynthesis.framework/Versions/A/Resources/com.apple.speech.speechsynthesisd
txt
/usr/share/icu/icudt59l.dat
txt
/System/Library/Speech/Synthesizers/MacinTalk.SpeechSynthesizer/Contents/MacOS/MacinTalk
txt
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpeechDictionary.framework/Versions/A/Resources/PrefixDictionaryEng
txt
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpeechDictionary.framework/Versions/A/Resources/CartNamesEng
txt
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpeechDictionary.framework/Versions/A/Resources/CartLiteEng
txt
/System/Library/Components/AudioCodecs.component/Contents/MacOS/AudioCodecs
txt
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreEmoji.framework/Versions/A/Resources/emoji.dat
txt
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreEmoji.framework/Versions/A/Resources/emojimeta.dat
txt
/usr/share/langid/langid.inv
txt
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreNLP.framework/Versions/A/Resources/tokruleLE.data
txt
/usr/lib/dyld
txt
/System/Library/Speech/Voices/Alex.SpeechVoice/Contents/Resources/PCMWave
txt
/private/var/db/dyld/dyld_shared_cache_x86_64h
0
/dev/null
1
/dev/null
2
/dev/null
3
/System/Library/Speech/Voices
4
/System/Library/Speech/Synthesizers
5
/Library/Speech/Synthesizers
6
/System/Library/Speech/Voices/Alex.SpeechVoice/Contents/Resources/PCMWave
7
/System/Library/Speech/Voices/Alex.SpeechVoice/Contents/Resources/PCMWave

DON’T WORK

cwd
/
txt
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/SpeechSynthesis.framework/Versions/A/Resources/com.apple.speech.speechsynthesisd
txt
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpeechDictionary.framework/Versions/A/Resources/CartNamesEng
txt
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpeechDictionary.framework/Versions/A/Resources/CartLiteEng
txt
/usr/share/icu/icudt59l.dat
txt
/System/Library/Speech/Synthesizers/MacinTalk.SpeechSynthesizer/Contents/MacOS/MacinTalk
txt
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpeechDictionary.framework/Versions/A/Resources/PrefixDictionaryEng
txt
/System/Library/Components/AudioCodecs.component/Contents/MacOS/AudioCodecs
txt
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreEmoji.framework/Versions/A/Resources/emoji.dat
txt
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreEmoji.framework/Versions/A/Resources/emojimeta.dat
txt
/usr/share/langid/langid.inv
txt
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreNLP.framework/Versions/A/Resources/tokruleLE.data
txt
/usr/lib/dyld
txt
/System/Library/Speech/Voices/Alex.SpeechVoice/Contents/Resources/PCMWave
txt
/private/var/db/dyld/dyld_shared_cache_x86_64h
0
/dev/null
1
/dev/null
2
/dev/null
3
/System/Library/Speech/Voices
4
/System/Library/Speech/Synthesizers
5
/Library/Speech/Synthesizers
6
/System/Library/Speech/Voices/Alex.SpeechVoice/Contents/Resources/PCMWave
7
/System/Library/Speech/Voices/Alex.SpeechVoice/Contents/Resources/PCMWave
8
/System/Library/Speech/Voices/Alex.SpeechVoice/Contents/Resources/PCMWave
9
/Users/kesl/Music/Text to Speech.aiff
10
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpeechDictionary.framework/Versions/A/Resources/TuplesEng