In linguistics, speech synthesis, and music, the pitch contour of a sound is a function or curve that tracks the perceived pitch of the sound over time. Because it deals with complex sounds involving many pitches, it is necessarily a relative measure that relates the frequency function at one point in time to the frequency function at a later point. Linguistics is the scientific study of language. ... Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. ... Allegory of Music on the Opéra Garnier Music is an art form that involves organised sounds and silence. ... Pitch is the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. ...

It is fundamental to the linguistic concept of tone, where the pitch or change in pitch of a speech unit over time affects the semantic meaning of a sound. It also indicates intonation in pitch accent languages. It has been suggested that Tonal language be merged into this article or section. ... Intonation, in linguistics, is the variation of pitch when speaking. ... Pitch accent is a kind of accent system employed in many languages around the world. ...

One of the primary challenges in speech synthesis technology, particularly for Western languages, is to create a natural-sounding pitch contour for the utterance as a whole. Unnatural pitch contours result in synthesis that sounds "lifeless" or "emotionless" to human listeners, a feature that has become a stereotype of speech synthesis in popular culture. Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. ...

In music, the pitch contour focuses on the relative change in pitch over time of a primary sequence of played notes. The same contour can be transposed without losing its essential relative qualities, such as sudden changes in pitch or a pitch that rises or falls over time. Allegory of Music on the Opéra Garnier Music is an art form that involves organised sounds and silence. ...

Pure tones have a clear pitch, but complex sounds such as speech and music typically have intense peaks at many different frequencies. Nevertheless, by establishing a fixed reference point in the frequency function of a complex sound, and then observing the movement of this reference point as the function translates, one can generate a meaningful pitch contour consistent with human experience. Pure tone is a single frequency tone with no harmonic content (no overtones). ...

For example, the vowel e has two primary formants, one peaking between 400 and 600 Hz and one between 2200 and 2600 Hz. When a person speaks a sentence involving multiple e sounds, the peaks will shift within these ranges, and the movement of the peaks between two instances establishes the difference in their values on the pitch contour. Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Spectrogram of American English vowels [i, u, É‘] showing the formants f1 and f2 A formant is a peak in an acoustic frequency spectrum which results from the resonant frequencies of any acoustical system. ...

External links

• Reuven Tsur. Phonetic Cues and Dramatic Function Artistic Recitation of Metered Speech. Tel Aviv University. A research article containing images illustrating many specific examples of pitch contours for recited poetry.