Saturday, September 10, 2011

back-channel feedback



Here are five of the most typical back-channels in a few languages.
American
English [5]
Mexican
Spanish
Japanese [5]Iraqi
Arabic
French [10]German [1]
1yeahsiunaihouiah (ach)
2uh-huhsi sieenamouaisja (ahja, aja)
3hmajáaarepetitionhumhummhm
4rightmjmlaughtermmmhumnein (ne)
5okaylaughterhaihmmahokay

Australian English yeh, hm, mhm, oh, ah, right [9]
British English yes, m, no, yeah, really [8]
Dutch: uh-huh, okay, ja, hela, jawel, nee, nou, zo [10, 1]
Egyptian Arabic: ah, mmm, laughter, tayeb, aiwa [5]
Finnish: joo, nii [11]
Italian: ah, mhm, mm, oh, si, uhuh [1]
Korean: mhm, n, ney, yeh, a, ah [6]
Mandarin Chinese: ao, ai, dui [4]
Swedish: ja, m, nä, va, nej, jo, jaha, aha, okej, just [2]
Vietnamese o', u', vang [7]


Clicks 

Phrasal back channels: really? , wow, is that right?, etc.

First two lists are from http://www.cs.utep.edu/nigel/bc/

Fernardo Poyatos' work

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