diff --git a/vall_e/emb/g2p.py b/vall_e/emb/g2p.py
index 342adc7..2a415a0 100755
--- a/vall_e/emb/g2p.py
+++ b/vall_e/emb/g2p.py
@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@ except Exception as e:
 	print(f'Error while importing langdetect: {str(e)}')
 
 def detect_language( text ):
+	if not text:
+		return "en" # to-do: map to a null language
+
 	if langdetect is None:
 		raise Exception('langdetect is not installed.')
 	return langdetect.detect( text )
diff --git a/vall_e/inference.py b/vall_e/inference.py
index 74fa64b..5dbdfec 100644
--- a/vall_e/inference.py
+++ b/vall_e/inference.py
@@ -385,7 +385,9 @@ class TTS():
 			text = transcribe( voice_convert, model_name="openai/whisper-base", align=False )["text"]
 		
 		lines = sentence_split(text, split_by=sampling_kwargs.get("split_text_by", "sentences"))
-
+		if not lines:
+			lines = [""]
+			
 		wavs = []
 		sr = None