Prosody

In phonology, prosody is the study of the role of acoustic and perceptual parameters such as fundamental frequency (F0), intensity and duration.

Polysemy

Prosody can also refer to

• the study of metre in verse (see prosody (of verse))
• a phonological feature having as its domain more than a segment (see prosody (Firthian))

Synonym

• suprasegmental phonology

Origin

The term goes back to Classical Greek prosoodía 'a song sung to music; (a mark to show) tone or accent of a syllable'. This general sense is apparently a recent generalization of Firth's use (see prosody (Firthian)).

Other languages

German Prosodie