Overview of SAE:
– SAE concept introduced by Benjamin Whorf in 1939
– SAE languages share syntax, grammar, vocabulary, idioms, and word order
– Romance and West Germanic considered core SAE languages
– French and German meet all criteria for SAE
Sprachbund Features in SAE:
– Definite and indefinite articles present in SAE languages
– Postnominal relative clauses with inflected relative pronouns
– Dative external possessors in SAE languages
– Negative indefinite pronouns without verbal negation
– Lack of distinction between alienable and inalienable possession
Sprachbund Membership in SAE:
– SAE includes Germanic, Romance, Baltic, Slavic, Albanian, Greek, and some Finno-Ugric languages
– Membership in SAE is gradient based on common features
– French and German form the nucleus of the Sprachbund
– Indo-European languages mainly constitute core SAE
– SAE likely formed due to historical language contact
Language Contact and Evolution in SAE:
– SAE features not inherited from Proto-Indo-European
– Influence of Roman Empire and Christendom on SAE languages
– Elite communication in Koine Greek, Classical Latin, and Modern Latin
– Learned borrowings and loanwords in European languages
– Ongoing evolution of SAE due to historical influences
Related Concepts and Importance of SAE:
– Eurolinguistics related to the study of European languages
– Languages of Europe encompass diverse linguistic groups
– SAE concept discussed in relation to language, culture, and personality
– Whorf’s analysis of SAE languages influenced by linguistic universals
– Importance of understanding SAE features in linguistic research
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Standard Average European (SAE) is a concept introduced in 1939 by American linguist Benjamin Whorf to group the modern Indo-European languages of Europe with shared common features. Whorf argued that the SAE languages were characterized by a number of similarities, including syntax and grammar, vocabulary and its use, as well as the relationship between contrasting words and their origins, idioms, and word order, which all made them stand out from many other language groups around the world which do not share these similarities, in essence creating a continental sprachbund. His intention was to argue that the disproportionate amount of SAE-specific knowledge in linguistics created a substantial SAE-centric bias, leading to generalization errors, such as mistaking linguistic features idiosyncratic to the SAE language group for universal tendencies.
Whorf contrasted what he called the SAE tense system (which contrasts past, present and future tenses) with that of the Hopi language of North America, which Whorf analyzed as being based on a distinction not of tense, but on things that have in fact occurred (a realis mood encompassing SAE past and present) compared to things that have as yet not occurred, but which may or may not occur in the future (irrealis mood). The accuracy of Whorf's analysis of Hopi tense later became a point of controversy in linguistics.
