Intonation and pitch

In RP connected speech (as well as within the word), intonation has a range of functions, the main ones being to cue in the primary accented words and to differentiate the various sentence-types along with indicating the various speaker attitudes (and emotions) involved within the context of discourse. The various types of nucleus (falling , rising /, fall-rise /, and rise-fall / ) that are operant in RP are used to signify the differences in a speech situation, depending on the position and type of nucleus involved. In MalE however, there are not so many patterns of intonation and they do not perform so many functions. Thus if any syllable is to be stressed within the word or any word is to be stressed within the sentence, loudness is the differentiating factor (i.e. greater breath effort and muscular energy is effected by the MalE speaker). Change in pitch direction, both within the word as well as within the sentence, is not common in MalE as it is considered affected.

In other words pitch direction does not change within the accented (stressed) word (say as a fall or a rise / etc.). Intonation within the word is most often level intonation, except in a few particles that are used in informal speech as indicators of intimacy, emotion, acceptance, excitement and the like.

For signifying various sentence-types or for showing the speaker’s attitude or emotion, MalE does not have as wide a range of intonation as RP. In MalE, there are such markers of questions and attitudes or emotions as particles – examples of which are the lah, man, and ah(uh) particles. These are substitutes for intonation especially in indicating emotions and attitudes.

As for range of pitch in the MalE speakers, it certainly is not as wide as that in the RP speaker (except for extremely excitable situations).