Intonation:
How to Speak with Pitch Changes
Intonation is the pattern of pitch changes as people speak. These
change from one culture to another. Pitch is the tone of your voice. In
American English, people have about 3 notes that they use when
speaking. Most words are in the middle tone. Stressed words are in the
high tone, and the low-tone often comes before
a stress (it makes the
stress larger by creating more difference in tone). The low tone may be
used at the end of sentences too, though you do not always have to end
on a low tone.
People who prefer to use less expression when they speak might use 3
half-tones, for instance, on a piano it could be the G, the G flat and
the G sharp. People who prefer a lot of expression might use more than
three notes too.
If you feel like you cannot change your pitch, use this technique. Yawn
out loud--let yourself make a sound. As you do this, go from a high to
a low sound. You only need 3 notes, so do not worry if your high-to-low
range is simple.
* The Golden
Rule of Changing Pitch *
What goes up must come down, and what goes down must come up. Think of
pitch-change like diving off a diving board.
In American English, we change our pitch on the words we stress. If
your voice does not seem to go up easily, try to make your voice low
first--then go up on the stressed word. The same works in the opposite.
If you change your pitch on a stressed word and then seem to stay on
that same tone, you probably did not go down on the next word. Go back
and try again, making sure to lower your pitch just after you raise it.
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Example:
We met our friends at the movies.
friends
mo-
We met
at the
vies
our
When stressing a one-syllable word, you will raise your pitch for the
stressed word. You will lower your pitch on the next word.
For a stressed word with 2 or more syllables, you will change your
pitch for the stressed syllable. You will lower your pitch on the next
syllable of that word. If the word happens to have stress on the last
syllable, then you will lower your pitch on the next word.
Which words
should you stress?
Remember that in American English, we stress important information
which usually includes many nouns at the beginning of a story or
conversation. The nouns will establish the basics needed to
understand--names and numbers are very frequently stressed. Once nouns
are understood, they change to pronouns and verbs get more stress. As
the story or conversation continues, adjectives and adverbs become more
important. That is only a very general guide, though. Stress the words
that are most necessary to the meaning you want to express. For every 5
- 8 words, which one word does the listener need to hear most? That is
the word to stress.
Listening
for Pitch
If
you learned British English as a child, you may find it difficult to
hear the difference between certain large vowel sounds of American
English and the pitch-change of stressed words. The long E sound in
"see" and the long I sound as in "light" are slightly high sounds by
nature. The short O as in "hot" might also sound a little higher than
the long O as in "boat." The long E, the long I and the short O are
made with the mouth quite open. Other sounds like the long O or the
long U are made by rounding the lips, closing off some of the sound.
For Americans, these differences in sound-quality are unconscious.
There are no tonal rules to American words. We change tones consciously only when we stress a
word or go down at the end of a sentence. Think about the differences
in sound in this sentence:
girl
cat.
sees
The sees
a
She
it.
Remember that we tend to stress nouns until the nouns become pronouns.
You can write your own sentences using the above pattern to teach
yourself how to hear the difference between a high vowel sound and a
high pitch. Remember that "high" is simply the note above normal--it is
not the same as a high note in singing.
learn pronunciation pronunciation of
English pronunciation a
pronunciation i
