Dialogue: Enunciation and Inflection

Word choice can say a lot about how your character feels about the topic, the person he is speaking to, and his mood. It speaks to his background and education level. It reveals whether he is confident or uncertain, being diplomatic or insulting. A character may choose their words carefully because they are afraid to offend. A character may blurt out whatever enters their head without filtering it.

In addition to content, you should pay attention to the delivery of your character's conversations. You can use enunciation and inflection to support or refute word choice. 

Enunciation:  Most characters attempt to enunciate somewhat clearly most of the time so they are understood. Some characters mumble, particularly teen boys and small children.

Mentally ill people can mumble. Dementia patients might mumble.

Characters mumble to obscure their words when they don't want to say something or are ashamed of saying something. 

It is important to enunciate clearly when speaking to someone who has poor hearing or is unfamiliar with your language.

Enunciation degrades when your characters are upset or angry. Characters run words together, skip over words, or leave words off. 

Characters over-enunciate when they are impatient, angry, or feel like they are talking to an idiot. 

Enunciation can display caring and empathy or anger and resentment.

Inflection: Inflection, or prosody, is the pitch of the voice, the process of adding emphasis to words or word parts. 

An upward inflection at the end of a sentence implies hope or a question. A downward inflection at the end of a sentence implies doubt or a command. 

A character's voice can be monotone and flat if they are bored. It will be slow and low if they are depressed or sad. High pitched and enthusiastic means they are happy or excited.

If they speed up and get louder, they are angry.

High pitch and slow speed indicated they don't believe you. Whoever your character is talking to will pick up on their inflection right away, especially if it is counter to the content.

If Dick is genuinely smiling when he says something on the telephone, the other person will pick up on the inflection. When you smile, the soft palate at the back of your mouth raises and makes sound waves more fluid. 

Dick might be forcing himself to smile, either to sell someone something or to not anger a dangerous person. If he is relaxed and smiling the other person will feel that he is warm, friendly and receptive. 

Most characters are bad at faking it. They can struggle to maintain a pleasant tone when they are royally pissed, but the edge will come through.

How Dick stresses specific words changes what he is saying. If he is defensive, he will emphasize "would you" as in "What would you like me to do about it?" It is antagonistic. If he genuinely cares, he would emphasize "like us" in "What would you like us to do about it?" If he is bored or does not care, he would not emphasize any of the words.

The way a character breathes affects their inflection. If they are stressed, they breathe shallowly. The more upset they grow, the faster they breathe until they hyperventilate. Their vocal cords contract and make the pitch higher. There is a reason why we tell hysterical people to take a deep breath. Breathing deeply relaxes the vocal cords and allows Dick to say what he needs to say in a reasonable tone of voice.

If Jane is confronting a toddler in the middle of a tantrum who is ranting and raving incoherently, Jane should ask the toddler to stop and breathe so he can clearly state his need or desire. She might yell and give in to her temper which escalates the problem. If she says, "Can you calm down so I can understand you, please?" it will defuse the problem. The upset person or toddler wants to be heard above all.

Next week, we will look at pattern and pitch.