Standard average European (SAE) is a concept introduced by Benjamin Whorf to distinguish Indo-European and especially West Indo-European languages from languages of other grammatical types. According to Whorf, people whose languages have very different systems of grammar perceive reality in different ways and conceive of it in different forms. Thus, language wields a profound influence on human thought. SAE may refer to: Soviet Antarctic Expeditions Scientific Audio Electronics Society of Automotive Engineers SAE Institute (formerly the School of Audio Engineering) Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity Stichting Academisch Erfgoed Standard American Equivalent (in relation to tool sizing see Standard and Imperial; different from Metric tool sizing but pertaining to same... Benjamin Lee Whorf (April 24, 1897 – July 26, 1941) was an American linguist. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Indo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. ...

Studies of grammatical systems appear to support the existence of large language groups or sprachbunds. The more central members of the SAE sprachbund are Romance, West Germanic, Baltic, and Slavic. The North Germanic and other East European languages tend to be more peripheral members. Look up romance, romantic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. ... Slav, Slavic or Slavonic can refer to: Slavic peoples Slavic languages Slavic mythology Church Slavonic language Old Church Slavonic language Slav, a former Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. ... Most of the many indigenous languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. ...

Speakers of several international auxiliary languages view their language as representative of "Standard Average European" and therefore as a possible pan-European interlanguage. Some Interlingua advocates argue that Interlingua is representative of SAE because many words that pervade the European languages, especially of a technical or scientific nature, are a fundamental part of the Interlingua vocabulary [1][2]. The Romance, Germanic, and Slavic control languages of Interlingua are reflective of the languages groups typically associated with the SAE sprachbund. However, Interlingua is sometimes seen as biased towards the Romance language group. Some Esperanto advocates argue that it is SAE because it too contains elements of Slavic, Germanic and Romance languages in its grammar and vocabulary [3]. However, those elements were not systematically chosen and combined, and the distribution of elements for each language group is sometimes seen as haphazard. An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) is a language used (or to be used in the future) for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language. ... European integration is the process of political and economic (and in some cases social and cultural) integration of European states into a tighter bloc. ... Interlingua is an international auxiliary language (IAL) published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). ... World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. ... The Romance languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, comprise all languages that descended from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ... Look up Esperanto in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

See also

• Languages of Europe
• Sapir–Whorf hypothesis

Most of the many languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. ... In linguistics, the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis (SWH) states that there is a systematic relationship between the grammatical categories of the language a person speaks and how that person both understands the world and behaves in it. ...

External links

• “The Notion of Standard Average European”, by Paolo Ramat.

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