Intonation

Intonation

Intonation is the spark that sets those volatile elements of language on fire. Language devoid of speech-music sounds pathetically petty and painfully robotic. Intonation is that feature of  standard English which makes it non-mechanical, non-boring and sharp.

In praise of  speech-music:

It infuses energy,

and raises dead words to life.

…draws attention;

and makes essentials difficult to ignore.

So how does one intonate?

Consider a statement such as this: I love you. You can intonate a sentence like this by increasing your pitch (here the highness and lowness of sound) on content words (words that carry meaning: basically Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs and Negative Auxiliaries), and also by changing your tone (the emotional quality of your voice: sadness, joy and the likes) on content words.

In the example: I love you. The content word is ‘love’, therefore to intonate you will have to increase pitch (go audibly high) and change tone (express emotion), in this case tenderness, on the word ‘love’.

In the example: I hate you. The content word is ‘hate’, therefore to intonate or to add rhythm you will have to increase pitch (go audibly high) and change tone (express emotion), in this case disgust, on the word ‘hate’.

Vinod