Mood and Personality
This is an extremely important aspect of intonation, as it goes beyond
what you are trying to say--it dictates how your listener will relate
to you as an individual--if you will be considered charming or rude,
confident or nervous, informed or unfamiliar.
An extremely important part of intonation is inside a one-syllable
word. Intonation in a one-syllable word? Isn't that a contradiction in
terms? No, we put in little sounds that are not in the written
language, but that convey a great deal of information in terms of who
we are.
When we contrast two similar words, one ending with a voiced consonant
(d, z, g, v, b) and the other with an unvoiced consonant (t, s, k, f,
p), you will hear the difference in the preceding vowel, specifically
in the length or duration of that vowel.
Simply put, words that end in a voiced consonant have a doubled vowel
sound. For example, if you say bit, it is a quick, sharp sound--a
single musical note. If you say bid, however, the word is stretched
out, it has two musical notes, the first one higher than the second,
bi-id.
Listen: (notice how the words that end with a voiced consonant are
longer)
