Standard Average European

Standard Average European (SAE) is a concept originally introduced in 1939 by American linguist Benjamin Whorf to group the modern Indo-European languages of Europe with shared common features.

[1] 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.

Whorf likely considered Romance and West Germanic to form the core of the SAE, i.e. the literary languages of Europe which have seen substantial cultural influence from Latin during the medieval period.

[3] The Standard Average European Sprachbund is most likely the result of ongoing language contact beginning in the time of the Migration Period.

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."