Phonetics And Phonology Questions Medium
Suprasegmental features in phonetics refer to the aspects of speech that go beyond individual sounds or segments. These features include stress, intonation, pitch, tone, and rhythm.
Stress refers to the emphasis placed on certain syllables or words within a sentence. It can affect the meaning and interpretation of a word or phrase. For example, in the word "record," the stress can be on the first syllable (RE-cord) or the second syllable (re-CORD), resulting in different meanings.
Intonation refers to the rise and fall of pitch in speech. It conveys emotions, attitudes, and sentence types. For instance, a rising intonation at the end of a sentence can indicate a question, while a falling intonation can indicate a statement.
Pitch refers to the perceived highness or lowness of a sound. It can be used to distinguish between different words or to convey different meanings. For example, in Mandarin Chinese, the word "ma" can mean "mother" with a high pitch or "horse" with a low pitch.
Tone refers to the use of pitch to distinguish between words or to convey different meanings in tonal languages. In tonal languages like Mandarin Chinese or Thai, the pitch contour of a syllable can change the meaning of a word.
Rhythm refers to the patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables in speech. It contributes to the overall flow and musicality of language. Different languages have different rhythmic patterns, such as the stress-timed rhythm in English or the syllable-timed rhythm in Spanish.
Overall, suprasegmental features play a crucial role in communication by adding meaning, expressing emotions, and conveying sentence types. They go beyond individual sounds and contribute to the naturalness and expressiveness of speech.