0312 – The Downward Circumflex Intonation Within A Word

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English - November 08, 2021 00:01 - 2 minutes - 1.88 MB - ★★★★ - 4 ratings
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2021.11.08 – 0312 – The Downward Circumflex Intonation Within A Word

This is, unsurprisingly, a word said in a higher pitch followed by a lower one, and as you might expect often signifies closure, certainty, finality – and is what we often use at the end of a sentence, as well as:

Usually for straight questions expecting more straight answers – “Is the team playing today or tomorrow?” / “Tomorrow.”

“What will Professor Harris say?”

“Why is she so upset?”

“Why are you complaining?”

“Where could you send the students?”

“Who knows what he did?”

So, in natural spoken English, we are brought up to understand that a downward inflection suggests the combined attributes of credibility and closure.

I was recently helping my goddaughter Corey and her boyfriend Dan move house. Because I could only give them til 2 that afternoon before I was due at another engagement, I was given a specific task of cleaning the kitchen cupboards and stocking them with crockery, cutlery and cookware. Nearing the end of this time I said: “Right, I think I’m done here”. Say that sentence with an upward inflection and it suggests some doubt in whether I had finished to their satisfaction, or maybe that I had a few more minutes in which I could do something else for them. With a downward inflection it says the opposite: that I know I have finished, I have run out of time and am unable to do anything else. It sends a ‘tonal signal’ to the listener of the underlying intent of the actual words and is used, for example, to avoid explanation or confrontation.

In presentation situations, a newsreader’s inflection will go down at the end of a story to signify not only that the item has come to an end, but also the credibility of what has just been said.

We tend to go down to signify being emphatic, when saying a statement or command or exclamation.

· “I’ve got to go to work”

· “That’s wonderful”

· “Put that down!”

Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and

projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career

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Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart

Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.

He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.

Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.

The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?

This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.

Music credits:

"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo