Prosody, What does it mean?

Prosody (lat.proso'dia, from grek. prosôidi'a =for song) In ancient Greece and Rome, prosody was described as the part of phonology that analyzed the language specific elements that brings rhythm and sonority to a text performed by oral reading; the distribution of vowels and consonants, the distribution of stressed and unstressed syllables, delimitations and pauses. Nowadays the word prosody is mostly used as the part within phonetics that describes the rhythm and melodic pattern of the spoken language. As the prosodic features following traits are indicated: quantity (length), stress (accent), pitch, intonation and delimitations. Those prosodic features are used in communicative purposes in order to distinguish  the meaning of words and syllables; moreover to emphasize certain aspects of Speech, ie the informative parts of the utterance.The prosodic features occurs in a sound-wave as variations of length, intensity and fundamental frequency. Those traits brings the characteristic pattern and pronounciation to a given language. (Quotation from the Swedish National Encyclopaedia)