The High Pitch Accent—which we can notate as H*—is by far the most common pitch accent in English, accounting for as many as 70% of total prominences. A Low Pitch Accent (L*) will always be in the lower part of a speaker’s range. By contrast, though a High pitch accent may be high in the speaker’s range, it may also merely be locally high—high relative to what’s around it. In fact, most H*s will not be particularly high in the speaker’s range.
The H* on “min-”, below, doesn’t sound particularly high.
The H* on the same syllable, below, is even lower in the speaker’s range.
But it is still a pitch accent that lends prominence to the accented syllable by raising the pitch of the voice. It is still an H*.
Of course, sometimes a High Pitch Accent will be high. The H* on “Face-“ below, is very high!
Emma Stone in Birdman
The H* on “brilliant“ below, is much lower in the speaker’s range.
It is still higher than the rest of the phrase, however, and still serves to highlight the prominent syllable in a similar way. It still counts as an H*.
Why are all of these classified as H*? It’s not that how high the pitch goes isn’t communicatively important. It is! A higher peak might indicate greater emotional investment, intensity, emphasis, or any number of other things. Here’s a mid-range H* on the phrase “I know”:
And here’s a much higher H* on the same phrase.
The first one is a fairly neutral statement—we might describe it as a sort of ‘default’ intonation pattern for the sentence “I know.” The higher H* here might be communicating something like frustration or impatience (or possibly exasperated agreement!). But the pitch accents in both of these examples are categorically similar—they create similar tune patterns (as you can see from the shapes of the contours) and highlight information in the same way. Different H* pitch accents can differ in height, both in absolute terms and within the speaker’s range, but they are nonetheless all specific instances of one category of prominence.
Here are some more examples of H* pitch accents from different speakers on varied utterances. As you listen to them and look at the accompanying pitch tracks, try to repeat them back, matching the movement of pitch as closely as you can within your own range. Try also to observe and feel out the similarities between them—the underlying category that is H*.
the low boundary tone
You may have noticed that H* can appear in a number of different sentence types (you may have especially wondered about the pitch contour in the questions “Where is the tailor?” and “how was its fate decided?”). We are still missing one crucial piece of the intonation equation: boundary tones. If you’ll recall, intonation can be broken down into two key aspects: prominences and boundaries. Pitch accents are one of the main ways we indicate prominences. Similarly, boundary tones are one of the main way we indicate boundaries. (Duration is another—just as we lengthen prominent syllables, we also lengthen out the final syllables before boundaries.)
It is the combinations of pitch accents and boundary tones that create intonational melodies and communicate meaning. For example, a high pitch accent (H*) followed by a low boundary tone will create a falling inflection. This is the case for the majority of the examples above.
We can use L] to mark low boundary tones, as in the example above.
We will take a detailed look at boundary tones after we’ve looked at the next two pitch accents: the Low Pitch Accent, and the Downstepped High Pitch Accent. For now, it is enough just to note the variety of contexts the H* Pitch Accent can show up in, and how the pitch contour is similar in all of them.
Exercises
Before we move on to consider L*, the low pitch accent, let’s do a little bit of practice producing a high pitch accent on the following phrases and sentences. In addition to the pitch accent, I will mark the phrases with a low boundary tone: L]. Remember that the combination of a high pitch accent and a low boundary tone results in a falling inflection.
an apple
H* L]
a cantaloupe
H* L]
a watermelon
H* L]
I like it
H* L]
I love it
H* L]
I hate it
H* L]
Who is it?
H* L]
It’s impossible.
H* L]
What a nice apartment.
H* H* L]
You’re a little late.
H* H* L]
I’m not afraid.
H* H* L]
It’s a good opportunity.
H* H* L]
On the next page we’ll look at some more examples of L*, the Low Pitch Accent.