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Pitch Contour

Performance
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The pattern of rising and falling pitch across a phrase or line. It shapes emphasis, mood, and sentence movement.

Detailed Definition
Pitch contour gives spoken poetry melodic direction without turning it into song. A rising contour can suggest uncertainty, invitation, or mounting energy, while a falling contour can create finality, gravity, or closure. In free verse, pitch patterns may help listeners hear relationships among lines that are not marked by regular meter. Thoughtful variation keeps a reading alive and prevents every line from landing with the same predictable cadence.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night,” raising the pitch through “Rage, rage” can intensify the command; A performer can let the pitch fall at the end of a mournful statement to create finality; In a list poem, varying pitch across items prevents the delivery from becoming flat and repetitive; A rising pitch on a question can distinguish it from the surrounding narrative without adding extra words
Additional Notes
Pitch contour prevents a reading from sounding flat. Let statements settle, questions rise naturally, and important images receive varied melodic shape.
Also Known As
Intonation Contour Melodic Contour Intonation
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