Belfast intonation and the myth of the fall

The type of analysis best suited to intonation (what Stockwell, 1972, calls the ‘representation’ question) is not under discussion in this article. In order to save taking up space with such analytical preliminaries, Belfast intonation is described in this article largely in a framework similar to that of Halliday (1967). We describe firstly the forms of intonation in that dialect; then the use of such forms; and end with some implications for linguistics in general. The analysis is based on recordings of the speech of an educated speaker of an urban Anglo-Irish dialect of Belfast. The main findings were checked by reference to a second speaker of the same dialect.