This study is the first of its kind to offer a comprehensive analysis of authentic everyday emotions as opposed to the simulated or stylized variety. Extensive material distinctive for its combination of unforced language behaviour, extremely good recording quality, and a high frequency of recurrent interaction sequences makes it possible to propose an empirically well-founded and at the same time surprisingly simple model of German prosody. On this basis, the study identifies four fundamental emotional dimensions directly connected with prosodic units and acoustic parameters.