I believe this is bug #354918 in eflite. Please use emacspeakconfig or edit /etc/emacspeak.conf directly, to set DTK_PROGRAM to /usr/bin/eflite.
Rationale: Emacspeak has changed how it uses the configuration variables. Under emacspeak 17, emacs executes the program DTK_TCL (assumed to be an interpreter) with the argument DTK_PROGRAM (assumed to be a script). If DTK_TCL is a standalone speech server (as with eflite), then it does not matter what DTK_PROGRAM is. Under emacspeak 23.505, emacs executes DTK_PROGRAM directly. If it is a script, its first line must give the full path to the interpreter, for example "#!/usr/bin/tcl". DTK_TCL is no longer used. DTK_PROGRAM may be the name of a file in /usr/share/emacs21/site-lisp/emacspeak/servers or a full path name. - Jim Van Zandt -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]