What are Prosodic Features?

Prosodic features (sometimes known as suprasegmental phonology) are those

aspects of speech which go beyond phonemes and deal with auditory quality of sound.

Pause- pause as hesitation is a non-fluency feature, however, intentional pauses are used
to demarcate units of grammatical construction, such as sentences or clauses.

Pitch- different pitch levels or intonation can affect meaning. A speaker raise the pitch
when asking a question.

Volume- a slight increase in loudness to indicate stress.

Tempo- tempo or speed, is to some extent a matter of idolect.

Stress- a stress or emphasis is usually preceded by a slight pause, and is spoken at slightly
increased volume.

What is Stress?

Stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or
to certain words in a phrase or sentence. In English, stressed syllables are louder that non-
stressed syllables.

Why is Word Stress Important?

Stress is part of the English language. Fluent English speakers use word stress to
communicate rapidly and accurately, even in difficult conditions.