Term used when answering a question with a lowered tone?

Question

Is there a term/phrase that can be used to describe the answering of a question with such a tone that would indicate that the answer isn't as all it seems? For example, if one person were to ask another person: 'how are you today?', to which they relied with: 'I'm okay' but their replied was with such a tone (a lowered tone, perhaps) that may suggest that they are not okay. Ultimately, my question is whether or not there is a term that describes the tone used when answering a question may indicate that the answer given (like 'I'm okay') may not be strictly true. I vaguely remember a tutor from my college days refer to this as something along the lines of 'lowered interjection' but as I cannot find any reference to this phrase online and so I was curious as to what the correct one is.

Answer 1

This would be lowered inflection.