Editing Sprachbund (section)

===Europe===
{{Main|Standard Average European}}

''Standard Average European'' (''SAE'') is a concept introduced in 1939 by [[Benjamin Whorf]] to group the modern [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] [[languages of Europe]] which shared common features.<ref>"The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language", in [[Leslie Spier]], [[Alfred Irving Hallowell|A. Irving Hallowell]], Stanley S. Newman, eds. (1941), ''Language, Culture, and Personality: Essays in Memory of [[Edward Sapir]]'', [[Menasha, Wisconsin|Menasha]], [[Wisconsin]]: Sapir Memorial Publication Fund. pp. 75–93.<br />Reprinted in [[John Bissell Carroll|John B. Carroll]], eds. (1956), ''Language, Thought and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamins Lee Whorf.'' [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]], [[Massachusetts|Mass.]]: [[MIT Press|The M.I.T. Press]]. pp. 134–159.
{{blockquote|The work began to assume the character of a comparison between [[Hopi language|Hopi]] and western European languages. It also became evident that even the grammar of Hopi bore a relation to Hopi culture, and the grammar of European tongues to our own "Western" or "European" culture. And it appeared that the interrelation brought in those large subsummations of experience by language, such as our own terms "time", "space", "substance", and "matter". Since, with respect to the traits compared, there is little difference between [[English language|English]], [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], or other [[Languages of Europe|European languages]] with the 'possible' (but doubtful) exception of [[Balto-Slavic languages|Balto-Slavic]] and [[Languages of Europe#Non-Indo-European languages|non-Indo-European]], I have lumped these languages into one group called SAE, or "Standard Average European."|Whorf 1941:77–78 and 1956:138.}}</ref> Whorf argued that these [[language]]s 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 {{lang|de|sprachbund}}. His point was to argue that the disproportionate degree of knowledge of SAE languages biased [[linguist]]s towards considering grammatical forms to be highly natural or even universal, when in fact they were only peculiar to the SAE [[language group]].

Whorf likely considered [[Romance languages|Romance]] and [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]] to form the core of the SAE, i.e. the [[literary language]]s of [[Europe]] which have seen substantial cultural influence from [[Latin]] during the [[Medieval Latin|medieval period]]. The [[North Germanic languages|North Germanic]] and [[Balto-Slavic languages]] tend to be more peripheral members.

[[Alexander Gode]], who was instrumental in the development of [[Interlingua]], characterized it as "Standard Average European".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lecorde.com/interlinguaus/pakupaku/uploads/GodeManifestodeInterlingua.pdf|title=Manifesto de Interlingua|first=Alexander |last=Gode |language=ia|access-date=February 10, 2013}}</ref> The Romance, [[Germanic languages|Germanic]], and [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] control languages of Interlingua are reflective of the language groups most often included in the SAE {{lang|de|Sprachbund}}.

The Standard Average European {{lang|de|Sprachbund}} is most likely the result of ongoing [[language contact]] in the time of the [[Migration Period]]<ref name="haspelmath1">[http://www.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de/seminar/abteilungen/sprachwissenschaft/ls_kortmann/Courses/Kortmann/Variation/index_html/2008-05-27.8724094854 "Language Typology and Language Universals"] accessed 2015-10-13</ref>{{full citation needed|date=December 2024}} and later, continuing during the [[Middle Ages]] and the [[Renaissance]].{{citation needed|date=May 2015}} Inheritance of the SAE features from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] can be ruled out because Proto-Indo-European, as currently reconstructed, lacked most of the SAE features.<ref name="howyoung">Haspelmath, Martin, 1998. "How young is Standard Average European?" ''Language Sciences''.</ref>{{full citation needed|date=December 2024}}