I could be wrong here, but it seems to me that a common aspect amongst all languages is the tendency to raise the pitch of your voice slightly when asking a question. Especially at the end of a question sentence.

If I’m wrong about this raised pitch being common amongst all languages, at the very least do all languages change their tone slightly to indicate that a question is being asked?

I guess there needs to be some way to indicate what is and isn’t a question. Perhaps a higher pitched voice reflects uncertainty. Is this something deep rooted in humans, or just an arbitrary choice when language developed?

  • PrimeErective@startrek.website
    31·
    3 months ago

    I’m totally with you. I think it is somewhat speaker dependent, but that is how I would say those questions.

    What’s your NAme

    How OLD (are you)?

    Where are you FROm?

    • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
      11·
      3 months ago

      Do you really pronounce those with a higher pitch? Or do you pronounce them louder?

      EDIT: that is a genuine question given that a lot of people conflate stress (louder; more dB) with pitch (higher tone; more Hz), and the examples provided hint prosodic stress, not prosodic intonation, since in English prosodic stress is often used for emphasis.