Intonation
In Russian the meaning of an utterance is distinguished with the help of intonation. The voice tone can either ascend or descend. The ascent or descent of a tone occurs at the accentuated syllable of a word main in meaning in the sentence. According to the tone movement the following basic types of intonation are distinguished.
|
Intonation Pattern |
Example |
Comment |
| ИК-1
Narrative sentence. |
- - - - - - \
Меня зовут Игорь. - - - - \ Я живу в Москве. |
The voice is even, descending to the end of a sentence. |
| ИК-2
1) Question with an interrogative word (как, кто, что, где, сколько etc.). 2) Request expressed by a verb in the imperative form. |
- - - - \
Как вас зовут? - - - - \ Где вы живёте? - - - - - - - - \ Дайте, пожалуйста, мне кофе. - - - - - - - \ Познакомьтесь, пожалуйста. |
At first the voice becomes a little louder and then smoothly descends to the end of an interrogative sentence.
The voice ascends at the verb in the imperative and smoothly descends to the end of a sentence. |
| ИК-З
Question without an interrogative word |
- - - - \
Вы были в музее? |
The voice ascends at the main word (the topic of a question). |
| ИК-4
Incomplete question with the contrastive conjunction a. |
- - - \ - /
Я живу в Москве. А ты? - - - - - - \ - - / Ему понравился борщ? А тебе? |
The voice ascends and
immediately descends (in a wavelike fashion). |
Last update: July 1, 2007
