Suprasegmental Features

Suprasegmental Features

1. Definition: the aspects of speech that involve more than single consonants or vowels. The study of these features is known as prosody.

   • The components of suprasegmental features
     • Stress
       • The rythm of the languag. Its one of the features of utterances. In pronunciation it refers to words, part of words or one word in a group of words that recieves the most emphasis.
     • Pitch
       • Influenced by the tension of the vocal cords. If the vocal cords are stretched, the pitch of the sound will go up. It is like a degree of highness or lowness of ones speech.
     • Intonation
       • The rising and falling of the voice over a stretch of sentence. It conveys the speakers attitude or feelings.
     • Tone
       • The rising and falling of pitch in a syllable. If the pitch of a single syllable or word has the effect of influencing the meaning of the word, we call the different pitch distributions by the term tone.
     • Tempo
       • The speed of slowness of utterance which is measured by the rate of syllable succession/movement, the number,and duration of pauses in a sentence.
     • Cluster
       • When two consonants of different places of articulation are produced together in the same syllable. Clusters are determined based on the sounds, not the letters of the words.

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