Pitch in Different Languages

Pitch varies significantly among languages. Also known as frequency, this varies not only among languages but also between men and women. Most men have a range between 85 and 180 Hertz, and most women between 165 and 255 Hertz.

Languages with low pitch include Hungarian, Greek, Finnish, Catalan and Hebrew. Those with high pitch include Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Hindi and Turkish. English has lower pitch than Spanish but higher pitch than Dutch.

With respect to English dialects, the difference in pitch is relatively small. New Zealand English has the lowest pitch, and Irish English has the highest. Spanish demonstrates a much greater difference in pitch among dialects. Argentinian Spanish has the lowest pitch, and Peruvian has the highest. European Spanish has a low pitch and Mexican has a high one.

Tone languages such as Chinese and Vietnamese have a high pitch, but non-tonal languages such as Hungarian and Finnish do not. Related languages often vary significantly with respect to pitch. Though Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are closely related, they are different in pitch- Swedish has the lowest pitch followed by Danish and then Norwegian. Swedish pitch is lower than that of English, but Danish and Norwegian have higher pitch than English does.