Prosodic Features that Cue Back-Channel Feedback in Northern Mexican Spanish*

In order to demonstrate attentiveness during a conversation it is generally necessary for the listener to provide back-channel feedback. To some extent, the times when back-channel feedback is welcome are determined by the speaker and conveyed to the listener with prosodic cues. In this study we sought to identify the cues used for this purpose in Northern Mexican Spanish. Based on quantitative analysis of a corpus of unstructured conversations, we found three cues, of which the most common is a pitch downslope followed by a pitch rise accompanied by a rate reduction on the last syllable and a drop in energy leading to a slight pause.