Greg Kochanski

Do all languages ask questions the same way?

Of course not.

I don't mean the words. I mean do they go up at the end?

No. In fact, English doesn't always go up at the end.

It's quite OK to say things that are obviously questions without much (or even without any) rise at the end. A good example is something like "Where did you put the car?" If you add too much rise at the end it sounds strange, or perhaps incredulous. For instance a good strong rise fits in with the last sentence of this exchange:

But, if the situation is more normal, one would use little or no rise on the car question.

Probably, the parking question would get more of a rise. (However, we've also learned that there is a reasonable amount of variability from person to person so it's not good to be too definite.)

Actually, I shouldn't say "English" there, because each dialect is different. In Belfast, almost everything has a high pitched ending, including things that are clearly statements. In other dialects, only a few questions are given a rise at the end.

In most dialects of English, echo questions / incredulous questions / declarative questions typically get a rise. These are things like

or

Other question that use words like "what", "when", and "how" or questions that swap the normal word order ("Did you go to the store?") are often not marked with much of a rise, if any is given at all.

Russian questions depend on the word at the end of the sentence. If the word has a stress (emphasis) at the end, the pitch typically rises in a quetion; if the last syllable is not stressed, then there is typically a final fall.

Chinese is a tone language. The pitch of speech rises and falls to carry some of the meaning of the words. (The classic example is "Ma ma ma ma." Said with one pitch pattern, it means "Mother scolds the horse;" said with a different tune, it means "The horse scolds mother.") When questions are not marked with special question words, they tend to have exaggerated pitch motions near the end of the sentence.

I read that there's a universal frequency code for questions. People have said that you raise the pitch of your voice when you request information so that you seem smaller and less threatening. You know, big hefty guys have low voices; children and women have higher pitched voices.