Intonation of English

The domain of intonation is called the intonation group . Accent is the device people use in English intonation to highlight new over given information. Words that need to be highlighted have their main syllables realized as accented syllables, whereas words expressing given information will have their stressed syllables produced without pitch prominence. The last accented word has the major pitch movement of the group, with pitch gliding on the relevant syllable, or stepping up or down over any unstressed syllables that may follow. The stressed syllable of the last accented word is termed the nucleus . Most nuclear tones involve some kind of pitch movement, as people noted earlier. The two basic pitch movements are rising and falling, but of course the amount of pitch fall or rise is important, as well as the direction. Many dialects of English appear to share basic similarities in the way their intonation is structured.