Tone vs Pitch Vs Volume

[anupumh]

Hi,

How are tone, pitch and volume/loudness different and what is their relative importance in spoken English?

How will you define or explain pitch of a voice? Does pitch have no effect on volume/loudness of the voice?

Does a person with high pitch voice not be always louder than a person with low pitch voice?

Thanks

[PROESL]

Originally Posted by anupumh

Hi,

How are tone, pitch and volume/loudness different and what is their relative importance in spoken English?

How will you define or explain pitch of a voice? Does pitch have no effect on volume/loudness of the voice?

Does a person with high pitch voice not be always louder than a person with low pitch voice?

Thanks

In speaking, as opposed to music, higher or stronger intonation is created by using more volume. More volume, or loudness, in the musical sense does not raise the tone to a higher pitch.

Pitch can refer to intonation, but it can also refer to the overall level of brightness in tone that a speaker consistently maintains. For example, I've read and heard that BrE speakers generally speak with a higher pitch than AmE speakers. Of course, each individual is different, but by listening to the BBC World Report on NPR, I think there's at least some truth to this. I would say it's accurate to say so.

The higher one's pitch is, the louder one's voice will sound. To the extent that pitch is like intonation, there is the potential for misunderstandings when we consider pragmatic language. As well, there is the potential for simply not being understood at all by using intonation and stress patterns in both words and phrases that are foreign and unfamiliar to native speakers.

[anupumh]

What I know is...
Tone is for the emotional element in ones speech
Pitch is the resonance in ones voice
Loudness pertains to volume

[PROESL]

Originally Posted by anupumh

What I know is...
Tone is for the emotional element in ones speech
Pitch is the resonance in ones voice
Loudness pertains to volume

Higher intonation is often marked by an increase in volume, though we may not typically think of it that way. At times when students have found it difficult to get control of their intonation or stress patterns, I've told them to say this louder and this softer. For example, someone might pronounce the word "calibrate" incorrectly by saying "calibRATE". By understanding that "cal" receives the most volume, some students are able to produce the correct pronunciation or intonation pattern. Higher intonation does require an increase in volume. For students that have a hard time hearing intonation, the idea of higher and lower volume is very useful. By the way, the correct pronunication is "CALibrate", of course. The same goes for "celebrate".

Tone has to do with the emotional element of communication, or we could say pragramatic communication. Pragmatic communication deals with what words can mean other than what the words themselves mean. Tone has to do with pragmatic communication or the intended meaning of words, phrases, and sentences.

Tone has to do with intonation as well. Tone, as in a musical pitch, has to do with high pitches and low pitches or high notes and low notes. Intonation and stress patterns essentially form the melody or music of a language. This can be difficult for some people. Using the melody or music of another language isn't always easy, and it could make some people feel uncomfortable, as using another way of speaking projects something different in one's personality. Some people might feel that the transference of intonation and stress patterns from their first language is part of who they are.

Loudness pertains to volume, true. But in speaking loudness also pertains to intonation. Giving a word or a syllable added stress is to say the word louder.

Can you, please, look into this? - marked for a normal stress and intonation pattern - Even normal stress and intonation patterns are variable, however. This is open to some, though I would say limited, interpretation. There comes a point at which something is simply not a normal or regular intonation pattern.


Can YOU, please, look into this, and get back to me with an answer tommorow? - marked intonation pattern - We don't typically give added stress or more volume to "you" because it's a function word - a grammar word. It's a pronoun.

Cən yə look intə this, please. - This sentence is marked for pronunciation practice: using schwa to produce more native-like speech. We often use the weak form of function words. Weak forms receive less volume. Their tone is softer or lower in volume than content words. Content words typically sound louder, or we can say they receive higher intonation. The contrast between content words, function words, and words that receive added stress form our intonation and stress patterns.

In music, higher pitches or higher notes sound louder, and lower pitches or lower notes sound softer. The same concept is easily applied to intonation and stress patterns.

[Tdol]

Originally Posted by anupumh

Tone is for the emotional element in ones speech

Tonal languages use it to inflect instead of the way we do in English.

[anupumh]

Originally Posted by Tdol

Tonal languages use it to inflect instead of the way we do in English.

Thus English is not a Tonal Language, is it?