Earlier or Higher? Comparing French rising-falling contour with rising contour in a corpus of conversation.

•We compared the phonetic realizations and meanings of the French rise-fall and rise.•We compared f0 curves using a wavelet-based functional mixed model.•They differ with respect to the timing of the rise and the amplitude of the fall.•Conversely, the scaling of the pitch peak is not relevant for this contrast.•Naïve listeners interpreted the rise-fall as conveying conviction and obviousness.