General character of english intonation

Intonation is a language universal. There are no languages which are spoken as a monotone, i.e. without any change of prosodic parameters, but intonation functions in various languages in a different way.

There is an agreement between phoneticians that on perception level a complex unity formed by significant variations of 1) pitch, 2) loudness (force) and 3) tempo (i.e. the rate of speech and pausation) is called intonation.

Not all stressed syllables are of equal importance. One of the syllables has the greater prominence than the others and forms the nucleus (focal point, semantic centre, focus, prominence) of an intonation pattern. Formally the nucleus may be described as a strongly stressed syllable which is generally the last strongly accented syllable of an intonation pattern and which marks a significant change of pitch direction, that is where the pitch goes distinctly up or down. The nuclear tone is the most important part of the intonation pattern without which the latter cannot exist at all. On the other hand an intonation pattern may consist of one syllable which is its nucleus.

According to Roger Kingdon [1958] the most important nuclear tones in English are: Low Fall (ˎNo), High Fall (ˋNo), Low Rise (ʹNo), High Rise (ˏNo), Fall-Rise (ˎˏNo), Rise-Fall (٨No). These tones are called KINETIC or MOVING because the pitch the voice moves upwards or downwards, or first one and then the other, during the whole duration of the tone.

Roger Kingdon also distinguishes STATIC TONES, in which the ice remains steady on a given pitch throughout the duration of the tone: the HIGH LEVEL TONE, the LOW LEVEL TONE.