intonations

Intonation refers to the variation of pitch in spoken language and is a key aspect of prosody. It involves how pitch rises and falls across syllables, words, and larger units such as phrases and sentences. In non-tonal languages, intonation operates at the sentence level to convey grammatical structure, focus, modality, and attitudes, while lexical tone in tonal languages uses pitch to distinguish word meaning. Intonation is typically described in terms of contours, pitch accents, and boundary tones.

In linguistic analysis, intonation is characterized by contour shape (e.g., fall, rise, fall-rise, rise-fall), the location of pitch accents, and the placement of boundary tones that mark breaks between prosodic units. Transcription systems such as ToBI (Tones and Break Indices) provide a framework for labeling these elements in particular languages. Acoustic correlates commonly used in measurement include the fundamental frequency (F0) trajectory, pitch range, and durational patterns associated with stressed syllables and phrase boundaries.

Functions of intonation include signaling sentence modality (declarative, question, or exclamation), indicating focus or contrast, organizing information structure, and conveying speaker attitude or emotion. English, for example, often features falling final contours on declaratives and rising contours on many yes–no questions, with variations across dialects and contexts. Cross-linguistic differences abound: some languages use rising tones for questions, others rely on final consonants or particle words in addition to pitch.

In music, the term intonation also denotes the accuracy of pitch production and tuning in performances, affecting the perceived quality of melodies and harmony. Poor musical intonation can reduce coherence between pitch and manuscript or standard tuning.