Topic-036: Introduction to Suprasegmental ‘Supra’ means above (beyond) and segments means sounds (such as vowels and consonants) so the term ‘suprasegmental’ means above sounds. The term suprasegmental was initially invented to refer to aspects of sound such as intonation that did not seem to be the properties of individual segments (i.e. the vowels and consonants of which speech is composed. The term has tended to be used predominantly by American writers, and much British work has preferred to use the term prosodic instead. There has never been full agreement about how many suprasegmental features are to be found in speech, but pitch, loudness, tempo, juncture, syllable, rhythm and stress are the most commonly mentioned ones.
