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One thing that I have noticed in my years of studying various languages that seems nearly without exception to appear, is the use of a rising intonation in the voice to indicate a question, or at least accompanies a question.

It has come up in just about every language I've ever dabbled in. I find that odd that all of them, despite completely different histories, locations, and paths of development, even in language isolates with no connection to another language or language family, have all seemed to develop the feature, even when it is completely unnecessary.

For example, in the Japanese language, in polite speech the postfix '-ka' is added to the verb to indicate a question. Even though there is that explicit indication, often the rising intonation is still used. And in informal level speech, where grammar is much more simplified, commonly the only thing used to show a question is that intonation, being that there is no change of syntax for a question as there is in English and some other languages.

And in Chinese(mandarin in this case), a question is implied by the particle 'ma', used in the same way as the Japanese 'ka'. Now, Chinese is a tonal language, and there are certain correct tones that are to be used for specific words. Now, 'officially' that 'ma' has a neutral tone. But in speech, it tends to be said with that same rising intonation, and so often native Chinese will tell you that 'ma' is the second tone, or the rising tone of Chinese, because they have the tendancy like all people for some reason do, to use that intonation with a question.

And often, it seems to be the only way to make a question. For example, Indonesian. Officially, the word 'apa' or formally, 'apaka' is added to the beginning of the sentence to form a question. But in spoken Indonesian, this often is ignored, and the only way to tell if it is a question or not is the rising intonation of the sentence.

Now, all those languages, I believe have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Japanese especially, is a complete language isolate, it is not related to any other language, (Unless you count it as Altaic, but I don't find that theory to be all that nonsensical). Why would Japanese develop this?

And there are many more examples of it, it seems every language in every language family has this. So then, why has this feature developed in every single freaking language, even in ones that developed in isolation with absolutely nothing to do with each other? Is it just a human dendancy, or what? I have no answer.

If you have an example of a language you know does not have this, say so. I can't claim in any way to have studied about every language, but at least the main biggies I've tried to make myself at least a bit familiar with.

[/rant]

I think it's something instinctual in not just human beings, but in other creatures as well... such as dogs. I've heard it before - when my grandma's dog became curious, it'd c**k its head to one side and kinda make this "Mm?" sound, which had a rising intonation.

Perhaps it's just a trademark of curiosity in mammals that can vocalize in one way or another. In the same way that no human can naturally speak in monotony unless they really try to, no human can really keep from asking questions with rising intonations unless they try to.

You know, you're right. I can't think of a single one! =O

And even Niora is like that. I have a rule for forming questions, you add "niya" or one of the other question words to the begginning of the sentence, yet even though there's a rigid stress rule, whenever I add those words, the stress shifts to the last syllable of the first word of the sentence, even though it's technically improper. Weird. =O

In Thai, I don't know, maybe is on the fence with this one?
The female polite word found at the end of a sentence ค่ะ "ka" (falling tone) does turn to คะ and has a high tone when is a question, but that is not always used, especially in everyday speech where you don't have to be polite.

Question word like ไหม (mai) does have a high tone as well, but are many question words like อะไร "arai" (what) and เมื่อไร "meuarai" (when), เท่าไร "Taorai" (how much/many), ทำไม "Tummai" (why) or ยังไง "Yung-ngai" (how) that usually are at the end of the sentece and always end with a mid or low tone and would not be pronounced with a high tone. In fact, some learning-thai book my stepmom has even mentioned that one of the hardest things for foreigners to learn is to not automatically end a question with a rising tone, if I remember correctly eek

Though at the same time, if ka/krup isn't used, there are also slang terms like "na" and "ah" that would have a high tone and would connotate a question that are sometimes thrown in at the end xD; So I guess is human nature?

The intonation sorta goes down in English sometimes too!

Example:

Person A: I'm gay!

Person B: ARE you?

The intonation in the 'you' seems to go down.

You can say it in different ways. The way I said it aloud to myself, it still had a rising intonation at the end. I can say it with a falling (terminal juncture?) intonation too, and then it sounds more like doubting, rather than just being incredulous and asking for confirmation. Although, the incredulous "are you!?" would normally come after a statement like, "I never said I'm not gay." And the doubtful one could often be like, "Are you, now?"

Anyway, the different intonation patterns in english indicate different meanings, but in spanish the intonation pattern of a specific sentence could never change and to change the meaning you have to add more words.

my english teacher brought this up with the perfect example sentence...
i didn't steal the money from that bank
different intonations will convey different meanings...
"I` didn't steal the money from that bank...someone else did"
"i didnt STEAL the money...i borrowed it"
"i didnt steal the MONEY...i stole the jewels"
"i didnt steal the money from THAT bank...i stole it from the other one"
"i didnt steal the money from that BANK...i stole it from the ATM"
"i DIDNT steal the money from that bank...no, really, i didnt"