The main purpose of this book is to take a step forward in the development of a consensus-based transcription system for Spanish intonation within the Tones and Break Indices (ToBI) framework by taking into account data from different dialectal varieties. The book comprises ten chapters which describe the basic intonational patterns of the following dialects of Spanish: Castilian, Cantabrian, Canarian, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Venezuelan Andean, Ecuadorian Andean, Chilean, Argentinian and Mexican Spanish.

Each chapter offers a Sp_ToBI analysis of the basic intonational contrasts found in these dialects that is based on a wide range of data including a variety of statements, yes-no questions, wh- questions, echo questions, as well as vocatives and imperatives. One of the advantages of the present work is that all chapters share a common methodology in data collection, thus permitting a precise comparison of the resulting intonation contours and their analyses. Digital recordings of the actual data on which the chapters are based are available at the website of the Interactive Online Atlas of Spanish Intonation (Atlas interactivo de entonación del español, accessible at http://prosodia.upf.edu/atlasentonacion/). We hope that the work presented here will serve as an empirical groundwork for the establishment of a standard, comprehensive system for transcribing the intonation of the Spanish language.