The melody of speech carries meaning beyond the words. Intonation is the pattern of pitch variation over phrases and sentences that signals sentence type, focus, attitude, and discourse structure.

Rising intonation often marks yes-no questions in English; falling contours commonly end statements. Languages differ in intonational inventories and in how pitch interacts with word stress. Intonation can reverse pragmatic interpretation even when segmental content stays fixed.

Transcription systems such as ToBI label pitch accents and boundary tones for research. Language teaching increasingly addresses intonation for intelligibility and pragmatic appropriateness. Misplaced pitch peaks can make fluent speakers sound abrupt or uncertain.

• Meaningful pitch pattern across phrases
• Signals questions, focus, and attitude
• Language-specific in contour inventory
• Studied with specialized transcription systems