The structure and lexicon of one's language influences how one perceives and conceptualizes the world, and they do so in a systematic way.

Sapir

•There is no objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, •but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. •It is quite an illusion language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection (1929)

Whorf

•When languages are similar, Whorf tells us, there is little likelihood of dramatic cognitive differences. (Indo-European)•But languages that differ markedly from English and other Western European languages (which Whorf calls, collectively, “Standard Average European” or SAE) often do lead their speakers to have very different worldviews. •We are thus introduced to a new principle of relativity, which holds that all observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar, or can in some way be comparable.