Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

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. This controversial hypothesis is named after the linguist and anthropologist Edward Sapir and his colleague and student Benjamin Whorf.

Further reading

• Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. By Benjamin Whorf, edited by John Carroll. MIT Press.
• Selected Writings of Edward Sapir in Language, Culture, and Personality. By Edward Sapir, edited by David G. Mandelbaum. University of California Press.
• Language Diversity and Thought: A Reformulation of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis. By John Lucy. Cambridge University Press.
• Rethinking Linguistic Relativity. Edited by John Gumperz. Cambridge University Press.
• The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. By Steven Pinker. Perennial.
• "What are the nine Eskimo words for snow?", 1979-02-16, The Straight Dope — Cecil Adams answers this question by saying that due to the polysynthetic nature of Inuktitut (which he and his interrogator term "Eskimo"), it is impossible to pin down a number of words.
• "Are there nine Eskimo words for snow (revisited)?", 2001-02-02, The Straight Dope — Cecil Adams responds to criticism by listing 15 of the words that English has for snow, concluding "Whatever may be said for the S-W hypothesis in general, the notion that it's supported by Eskimo words for snow is bunk.".

Empirical examples

• E-Prime—avoids the verb "to be" in terms of general semantics
• non-sexist language—often promoted on the grounds that sexist attitudes are aided by sexist language
• gender-neutral pronouns such as spivak pronouns and sie and hir
• Loglan and Lojban—two languages designed in part to test the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis by placing radically different constraints on speakers
• Toki Pona — a constructed language inspired by Taoist philosophy and intended to shape the thought processes of its speakers