entoação

Entonação, also known as entonação in Portuguese, is the pattern of pitch variation that occurs across spoken language. It is a central aspect of prosody, along with rhythm and stress, and operates over larger units than individual sounds, helping to organize utterances beyond segmental content.

The primary features of entonação are pitch (F0), duration, and intensity, which together shape the contour of an utterance. These elements are organized into intonational phrases, each often ending in a boundary tone that signals the illocutionary force or syntactic structure of the phrase. Common contour types include falling, rising, fall-rise, and rise-fall, and they interact with word-level stress to convey meaning.

Entonação serves multiple functions. It helps distinguish sentence types (for example, declarative versus interrogative), marks focus and new versus given information, and conveys attitudes or emotions such as doubt, certainty, or sarcasm. It also supports discourse organization by signaling topic boundaries, contrast, and emphasis.

Cross-linguistically, entonação interacts with language-specific systems. Some languages are tonal, using pitch to distinguish lexical meaning, while others rely on intonation primarily for grammatical and pragmatic information. In many languages, the default intonational patterns can vary regionally and socially.

Methodologically, entonação is studied through phonetic analysis of F0 trajectories, duration, and loudness, often using transcription schemes such as ToBI to annotate contours. It is also analyzed in relation to syntax, semantics, and information structure, and is reflected in written punctuation as cues to expected intonation patterns.