Ten studies between 1829 and 1919 ordered the vowels /u, o, a, e, i/ from low to high pitch, respectively. More recent research is consistent with this rank order. Peterson and Asp reported a rank order for prevocalic consonants based on pitch differences. From these studies and clinical experience, a hypothetical pitch (“tonality”) model was constructed that divided consonants, vowels, and diphthongs into pitch categories. From this model, 30 monosyllabic words were selected, ten each from the low, middle, and high pitch categories. The phonemes within each word were from the same category, e.g., /rum/ for low pitch and /sis/ for high pitch. The 30 words were recorded in 435 pairs. Nineteen normal hearing listeners selected the word from each pair that was higher in pitch. Using a matrix, the 30 words were rank ordered from low to high pitch. The rank order agreed with the proposed model. Statistical analysis separated the words into groups that corresponded to the low‐, middle‐, and high‐pitch categories. [Work supported in part by Biomedical Science Support Grant.]