Was just thinking about how one’s voice goes up a little in pitch at the end of a sentance or word to indicate that it’s a question. Is this inflection universal to all spoken languages?
I can see why such emotions as fear or anger would sound as they do when spoken but why should the pitch raise on questions? Does it relate to sounding meek? Hmmmm…
>> Is this inflection universal to all spoken languages?
No. Some Asian languages, including Chinese, are tonal, meaning the same word has different meaning depending on the tone. So you cannot change the pitch without changing the meaning of the word
Interesting…
Speaking of Asian languages, I used to be friends with some people originaly from Thailand who were desperately trying to learn English. While they were still early in the learning process, it seemed more often than not their sentances would go “up” at the end, making it seem like everything they said was a question. So even casual remarks such as “I like your haircut” turned into “I like your haircut?” It took a while to get used to.