Wiktionary
n. An upward shift of tone between the syllables or words of a tonal language.
Wikipedia
In linguistics, upstep is a phonemic or phonetic upward shift of tone between the syllables or words of a tonal language. It is best known in the tonal languages of sub-Saharan Africa. Upstep is a much rarer phenomenon than its counterpart, downstep.
The symbol for upstep in the International Phonetic Alphabet is a superscript upward pointing arrow []. However, it is not uncommon, especially in the early research, to find a superscript (or sometimes subscript) inverted exclamation mark [], due to typographical constraints.
Hausa has upstep due to the interaction of tones once they are placed in context:
It's English.Upstep is superficially similar to pitch reset, which is nearly universal in the prosody of the world's languages. The most common prosodic contours occur in chunks with gradually declining pitch (here transcribed as a global fall, [↘]). Between such chunks the pitch resets:
Been there. Done that.Usage examples of "upstep".
But what a gigantic upstep in intelligence that action revealed-unless the brachs had never been truly the animals they had seemed and the radiation box had not as far back to take them as the Terrans believed.