Definition
Plain language
The rise-and-fall shape of a voice across a sentence, as opposed to just how high the voice is on average.
As stated in the literature
The trajectory of fundamental frequency over an utterance; contour shape and mean F0 are separable prosodic dimensions that can carry different discriminative information for a given speech-act classification.
Also called: pitch contours, pitch shape
Why it matters: Judging a speaker by average pitch alone misses most of the meaning, because it is the shape of the rise and fall that signals questions, emphasis, and irony.
For example, "you're going" said with a falling voice states a fact, while the same words with a sharp rise at the end become a question — the average pitch is nearly identical, but the shape is not.
Heard on the show
“Average pitch isn’t the same thing as pitch shape.”Episode 262 — Raise the Pitch Nine Percent and the Model Cries Sarcasm