Fall-rise vyes vno

The fall-rise is used a lot in English and has some rather special functions. In the present context we will only consider one fairly simple one, which could perhaps be described as "limited agreement" or "response with reservations". Examples may make this clearer:

A: I've heard that it's a good school.

B: vyes

B's reply would be taken to mean that he would not completely agree with what A said, and A would probably expect B to go on to explain why he was reluctant to agree. Similarly:

A: It's not really an expensive book, is it?

B: vno

The fall-rise in B's reply again indicates that he would not completely agree with A. Fall-rise in such contexts almost always indicates both something "given" or "conceded" and at the same time some reservation or hesitation. This use of intonation will be returned to later.