Intonation 

In speech, intonation is the use of changing (rising and falling) vocal pitch to

convey grammatical information or personal attitude. Intonation is particularly
important in expressing questions in spoken English. For example, take the
sentence, "When does the meeting start?" The word "start"—including the
question mark—rises up or comes up in your voice when you utter the word,
notes the website English Pronunciation Roadmap.

The Musicality of Language

Intonation is the melody or music of a language, says David Crystal, author of "A
Little Book of Language." Intonation refers to the way your voice rises and falls as
you speak, as in,

"It's raining, isn't it? (or 'innit,' perhaps)"

In this sentence, you're not really asking a question: You're telling the listener

that it's raining, so you give your speech a "telling" melody. The pitch-level of
your voice falls and you sound as if you know what you're talking about, and of
course, you do, so you're making a statement. But now imagine that
you don't know if it's raining, says Crystal. You think there might be a shower
outside, but you're unsure, so you ask someone to check. You use the same words,
but the musicality of your voice makes a different point, as in,

"It's raining, isn't it?"

Now you're asking the person, so you give your speech an "asking" melody, says
Crystal. The pitch-level of your voice rises, and you sound as if you're asking a
question.

Pitch and Chunking

To understand intonation, it's important to comprehend two of its key terms:
pitch and chunking. Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that pitch is,

"the relative highness or lowness of a tone as perceived by the ear, which depends
on the number of vibrations per second produced by the vocal cords."

Everyone has different levels of pitch in their voice, notes Study.com:

"Though some are more prone to a higher pitch and some to a lower pitch, we can
all change our timbre depending on who we are talking to and why."

Timbre refers to the quality of sound that distinguishes one voice or musical

instrument from another or one vowel sound from another: It is determined by
the harmonics of the sound. Pitch, then, refers to the musicality of your voice and
how you use that musicality or timbre to convey meaning.

Chunking—and pausing—meanwhile packages information for the listener,

says the University of Technology (UTS) in Sydney, adding that speakers
divide speech into chunks, which may be single words or groups of words to
communicate a thought or idea, or to focus on information the speaker thinks is
important. UTS gives the following example of chunking:

"Does it really matter whether people speak with an accent as long as they can be
easily understood?"

This sentence breaks into the following "chunks":

"Does it really matter /

whether people speak with an accent /
as long as they can be easily understood?" //

In this example, in each chunk, your pitch would be slightly different to better
convey your meaning to the listener. Your voice, essentially, rises and falls in each
"chunk."

Types of Intonation
Another key point about intonation involves the rising and falling of your voice.
Just as a musical instrument rises and falls in its tone as an accomplished player
creates a melody to convey a sense of mood, your voice rises and falls in a similar
melodic way to create a sense of meaning. Take this example from an article by
Russell Banks, in an article called "Adultery," which was published in the
April/May 1986 issue of Mother Jones.

"I mean, what the hell? Right?"

The speaker's voice rises and falls in the separate chunks in these two brief
sentences, as follows;
"I mean /
What the hell? /
Right?" //

As the speaker says the first chunk—"I mean"—the voice falls. Then, during the
second phrase—"What the heck?"—the voice rises, almost like climbing a melodic
ladder with each word. The speaker does this to express outrage. Then, with one
the last word—"Right?"—the speaker's voice climbs even higher, similar to hitting
the elusive high C in music. This is almost like pushing the sentence to the
listener—handing it off, if you will—so that the listener will agree with the
speaker. (If the listener does not agree, an argument is likely to follow.)

And, in the article, the listener does indeed agree with the speaker, by responding
with,

"Yes, right."

The response is spoken with falling intonation, almost as if the listener is giving
in and accepting the dictate of the speaker. By the end of the word "right," the
responder's voice has dropped so much it's almost as if the person is giving in.

Put another way, intonation is the process of chunking statements (and

responses), to deliver packages of meaning. Generally, the initial statement (often
a question), may rise and fall in tone, but it generally rises at the end, as the
speaker passes off the sentence or question to the listener. And, just as with a
musical piece that starts quietly, and crescendos in sound and timber, the tone or
sound of the response falls as if the responder is bringing the discussion to a quiet
ending, just as a melody quietly comes to a soft finish at the end.
Types of Syllables

There are six types of syllables:

1.A closed syllable ends in a consonant. The vowel has a short vowel sound, as in the word
bat
2. An open syllable ends in a vowel. The vowel has a long vowel sound, as in the first
syllable of apron
3. A vowel-consonant-e syllable is typically found at the end of a word. The final e is silent
and makes the next vowel before it long, as in the word name.
4. A vowel team syllable has two vowels next to each other that together say a new sound,
as in the word south
. 5. A consonant-le syllable is found in words like handle, puzzle, and middle.
6. An r-controlled syllable contains a vowel followed by the letter r. The r controls the
vowel and changes the way it is pronounced, as in the word car.