Page 225 - (DK) Help Your Kids with Language Arts

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THE SPOKEN W ORD

Tone and pitch
Speakers adjust the tone and Bao Bao, the world’s
pitch of their voice according oldest panda, has
to what they are saying. For
example, someone might died at age 34.
sound sad and low-pitched
if delivering bad news, but
delighted and high-pitched
if discussing good news.
In other news, the
weather is going to be
This sentence would fantastic this weekend.
probably be delivered
in an upbeat tone.

Pauses and fillers Structure
When people are thinking People often leave out words and use incomplete
about what to say next, or sentences when they are having spoken conversations.
lose their train of thought, Contractions such as haven’t and couldn’t are used more
they pause. Sometimes frequently in speech than in written text, because the
people fill the silence with words are easier to say and help make a conversation flow.
a hesitation device, such
as er or huh, or with a sigh.

So...why did your team
play so badly tonight? Did you see the
game last night?

Er…we…have
An ellipsis stands
for a pause when
spoken language no excuse. Awesome,
is written down.
wasn’t it?

GLO S S A RY
This isn’t a full sentence.
Accent The way in which a language is pronounced. Yeah. The speaker is relying
Colloquial A word used to describe the language that is on what was said before
for his or her words to
used in informal, everyday speech.
make sense.
Contraction A word that has been shortened by
removing letters.
Dialect The informal vocabulary and grammar used by
a particular social or geographic group of people. The word I has
Pitch The height of a sound. Reckon we’re been left out, and
we’re has been used
Tone The feeling or mood projected by a voice—for going to the instead of we are. The
example, happy, sad, angry, or excited. informal verb reckon
playoffs now. is often used in
colloquial speech.