Somebody dropped me a note the other day asking about intonation and what exactly intonation is. Well it isn’t that hard a concept, although it is a little subtle at times.
Basically, in language, intonation is the rising, or falling pitch in the speakers voice as they say words or phrases. In many languages, changes in pitch reflect a change in meaning of what is being said.
Some languages are considered to be ‘tonal languages’. That is, the language makes use of different tones to signify different meanings. Mandarin Chinese, and Thai are two that quickly spring to mind. What this means is that in tonal languages, words that are the same in all ways except the intonation will have different meanings. Of course the use of tones is not limited to distinguishing different words. (more…)