Why do some people automatically repeat in a whisper the last words that were uttered in a conversation?

2 Answers

1. Something similar was discussed at the university at the pair “psychology of journalism”. If a journalist repeats the words in an interview after the other person's answer (usually in a lower tone, or even in a whisper), this is so that the other person continues his thought. That is, he sees that the journalist repeated the last words and does not ask anything, most likely, the journalist will continue to talk about the same topic.

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2. In connection with this question, one literary example comes to mind. Mikhail Gendelev, The Great Russian Journey, ch. 22-23:

   “And anyway,” said my mother, ” have you come to our country to behave like a rogue?
   — Like a sucker, – echo (there is such a syndrome in psychiatry: echolalia is a matter of stitches!) Dr. Handelev responded like a beggar…”

   Echolalia is, of course, not a “syndrome”, but a symptom of a number of mental disorders (I hope that psychiatrists will come to this question and supplement the literary examples with purely scientific ones).

   It happens that such repetition is not associated with disorders; in children, for example, it may simply be one of the stages of speech formation.

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