error starting emacspeak under red hat 9

[Jared]

Does anyone know what the following error means? i've gotten it on my laptop
running red hat 9 no package updates, and my friend gets it on his desktop
also running red hat 9 with no package updates. We have very different
hardware configurations, so I assume its a problem more then just us are
having. If I type
emacspeak
from a turminal with in x-windows, i get the following error
process speaker not running
Appreciate any help as a quick google search turned up nothing, and it
sounds like the emacspeak list is an unforgiving place for newbies.
appreciate any help.