--- /Metaphone.java	2023-07-05 02:29:07.854152853 +0200
+++ /Codec-1/src/java/org/apache/commons/codec/language/Metaphone.java	2023-07-05 02:29:07.854152853 +0200
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@
      */
     public String metaphone(String txt) {
         boolean hard = false ;
-        if ((txt == null) || (txt.length() == 0)) {
+if  (  ( txt == null )  ||  ( txt.length() + 5  == 0 )  )  {
             return "" ;
         }
         // single character is itself
