Pitch

One of the ways we recognize people is by the pitch of their voice. We say
that one person has a very high voice whereas another has a deep voice.
When their voice is very high we talk about them having a high-pitched
voice.
While most of us have a pitch range that we normally operate at, in times of
tension, for example, the pitch of our voices may change dramatically. We
often speak at a higher pitch than normal if we are frightened or excited.
When we are tired, bored, or fed up our pitch may be lower than is
customary.
A device by which we communicate emotion and meaning, therefore, is
through the pitch we use. If we start speaking at a higher pitch than usual,
this is noticeable. A low grunt gives some indication of mood too!

tone, in linguistics, a variation in the pitch of the voice while speaking. The word tone is usually
applied to those languages (called tone languages) in which pitch serves to help distinguish words and
grammatical categoriesi.e., in which pitch characteristics are used to differentiate one word from
another word that is otherwise identical in its sequence of consonants and vowels. For example, manin
Mandarin Chinese may mean either deceive or slow, depending on its pitch.
In tone languages, pitch is a property of words, but what is important is not absolute pitch but relative
pitch. Tone languages usually make use of a limited number of pitch contrasts. These contrasts are
called the tones of the language. The domain of the tones is usually the syllable.
There are two main types of tone languages: register-tone, or level-tone, languages and contour-tone
languages. Register-tone languages use tones that are level; i.e., they have relatively steady-state
pitches, which differ with regard to being relatively higher or lower. This is characteristic of many tone
languages in West Africa. In contour-tone languages at least some of the tones must be described in
terms of pitch movements, such as rises and falls or more complex movements such as risefalls. This
is characteristic of many tone languages of Southeast Asia.