Why do all languages share the same intonation for questions?

OmegaMouse@pawb.social to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 76 points –

I could be wrong here, but it seems to me that a common aspect amongst all languages is the tendency to raise the pitch of your voice slightly when asking a question. Especially at the end of a question sentence.

If I'm wrong about this raised pitch being common amongst all languages, at the very least do all languages change their tone slightly to indicate that a question is being asked?

I guess there needs to be some way to indicate what is and isn't a question. Perhaps a higher pitched voice reflects uncertainty. Is this something deep rooted in humans, or just an arbitrary choice when language developed?

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Semi-related question since people have shown counterexample for OP's question: Are there English sentences where the tone goes up at the end, but is not a question? It feels like that particular tone is exclusive for questions.

Anything spoken by a valley girl

That's a sexist stereotype, but it's true for anyone feeling really unsure about their statement. You don't even have to change the note at the end of the sentence. Could just trail off... or add a whole new half sentence like "thoughts? "

Go watch some Karen Puzzles videos

Whatever that is, sounds like it might be toxic, typing it into my ancient-ass tablet broke everything and now the browser will only load the wiki page on neoliberalism

Edit finally it fucking worked and its just a nice lady with extreme vocal fry talking about puzzles, so wtf

Yeah she's great? but notice how her inflection consistently goes up? at the end of sentences? or clauses?

Is that what you meant by valley girl?

Yes. That's a major component of the "valley girl" accent.

Nah I lived with a woman in Burbank. Not my scene. Out of all the people in the LA suburbs I met whom I didn't like, that annoying valley girl accent never came up.