5. Pitch Direction

The area of intonation includes sentence stress as well as variations of pitch of the voice that are two key components. You remember, sentence stress is a component of intonation as stressed words make certain beat in the language that differs English from other languages both accented and syllabic. So let us consider the other component which is pitch.

Pitch is the degree of height of a speaker’s voice in speech. Normal speaking pitch is at midlevel. Variations of pitch that is raising and lowering the voice while speaking together with sentence stress are basically intonation. Intonation is formed by certain pitch changes, for example, falling intonation is formed by pitch changes from high to low, and rising intonation is formed by pitch changes from low to high.

From the point of view of physiology pitch is the change of voice in the result of work of the vocal cords. Primarily it depends on the degree of vibration of vocal cords. When the vocal cords are stretched, the pitch of voice increases. Such tenseness of vocal cords occurs by the increase of air pressure from lungs. Pitch variations in speech happen due to the change of tension of vocal cords.

Pitch is defined by Cruttenden as the relative height of speech sounds as perceived by a listener and is what we hear when we refer to a voice being “high” or “low”. The varying pitch levels throughout an utterance form what we hear as intonation: the falling or the rising of the voice.

In most stressed syllables a higher pitch is observed. As stressed syllables are distinguished by more prominence or loudness in speech than the unstressed ones so, loudness to a certain degree takes part in the formation of pitch. That is, higher pitch is heard louder than lower pitch. But contrary to acoustic facts, the most prominent stressed syllable of an utterance differs from the rest stressed syllables of the same utterance not by the highest pitch but by the length of the final stressed syllable which indicates the natural (physiological) decrease of speech force as it comes to conclusion.

As it is clear from the information above pitch is a variable component of intonation. It differs depending on physiological characteristics of a speaker’s speaking apparatus, his/her emotional state and type of speech. The average pitch of a voice depends on a voice family as well. For example, the average pitch of a standard male voice is around 120 Hz, and for a female voice is around 210 Hz. Inflexions and changes in pitch are used to convey additional meaning and emphasis. Thus, a highly animated voice, or one that is heavily inflected, displays a high pitch range.

‘Ideal’ midlevel speaking pitch is a characteristic of ‘academic’ speech which is primarily concerned with the communication of ‘intellectual’ facts in a discourse. It is certainly much less appropriate in the description of ‘conversational’ speech.

The pitch of English speech varies from high pitch level to low pitch level. The upper and the lower limits of the human voice can be graphically shown by two horizontal lines (or staves).

_{- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -} High level

_{- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -} Midlevel

_{- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -} Low level

For each ‘conversational’ message the speaker chooses one of the three levels of pitch required for the conversation. Most of speech for a speaker takes place at midlevel pitch in normal unemotional speech. In contrast, high pitch is used in emotionally charged conversation, while low pitch level is used in unemotional speech when the speaker is indifferent and contributes very little to the conversation. One person’s high pitch may be another person’s mid-range pitch. For convenience in the further analyses we will keep to midlevel pitch which is characteristic to normal unemotional speech.

The terms “intonation” and “pitch” are often used interchangeably when talking about the “highness” or “lowness” of our voice when we speak. The difference between the terms is not very significant. In short, intonation is the use of pitch, just as mathematics is the use of numbers, or photography is the use of light and colour. Intonation is a broader term than pitch. Being able to perceive pitch (the highness of lowness of our voice) leads to the use of correct intonation.

Understanding English intonation patterns will increase not only your spoken English pronunciation competence, but your English listening comprehension as well.

Applying the notion of pitch to sentence stress it should be noted that the stressed syllables of content words occur at comparatively regular intervals and are usually higher in pitch than the unstressed syllables. The unstressed syllables are blended into a stream of sounds between the stressed syllables making rhythm.

The pitch range is also variable. Its property specifies the diapason over which variations of voice may occur. The speaker can speak within narrow, wide or normal speech range. Possible values of pitch range are between 0 and 100 Hz. A pitch range of 0 value produces a flat, monotone voice. A pitch range of 50 Hz produces normal inflexion. Pitch ranges greater than 50 Hz produce animated voices. To prove that emotional condition of the speaker modulates the diapason or range of pitch we will give an example of the research that when people get irate, there is a strong likelihood that the diapason of pitch moves will be bigger than when they are emotionally neutral. Consequently nonlinguistic factor affects the pitch pattern as well. Linguistic influence on pitch range can be shown by the example of how people do narratives which include parentheses and quotations. Parentheses often are rendered with a narrower diapason, while quotes often involve a larger range.

In the view of pitch intonation can also be defined as the use of pitch in order to provide linguistic as well as nonlinguistic information.

Footnotes. You remember the vocal cords are two elastic folds in the larynx that while coming together vibrate. The human voice is capable of producing sounds using different physiological processes within the larynx. These different forms of voice production are known as vocal registers. The sciences identify only four registers: the whistle register, the falsetto register, the modal register, and the vocal fry register. Vocal range plays such an important role in classifying singing voices into voice types. There are certain characteristics that help to categorize a singer’s voice into a particular kind of singing voice or voice type. Women voice types are of three groups: soprano, mezzo-soprano, and contralto. Men are usually divided into four groups: countertenor, tenor, baritone, and bass.