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Roberto Henry Ebelt

Tanto nos artigos que escrevo para o Jornal do Comércio como nos artigos que escrevo aqui, eu já mencionei inúmeras vezes, que a língua inglesa, também conhecida como Modern English, é o resultado da mistura de um idioma germânico conhecido como Low German ou Anglo-Saxon ou Old English mais um idioma falado na França, mais especificamente na região Normandie, e conhecido como Norman French.

Localização da Normandia dentro da França e em relação à Inglaterra que se encontra bem ao norte da "Normandie".

Esses dois idiomas, por sua vez, tiveram, em suas origens, o Latim e o Grego. Assim sendo, podemos dizer, sem medo de errar, que o vocabulário que forma o corpus do Modern English é composto de palavras de origem grega (20%), latina (20%), germânica (20%) e francesa (20%).

Os restantes 20% é composto de palavras de origem universal. Até o português contribuiu para o vocabulário do Modern English. A seguir algumas palavras inglesas de origem portuguesa:

Breeze
from the Portuguese word "brisa"

Cachalot
from Portuguese cachalote (same meaning), probably via Spanish or French. The Portuguese word comes from cachola("head" or "big head").

Caramel
from caramelo, caramel, from Late Latin calamellus

Cobra
shortening of cobra-de-capelo, with the same meaning (literally, "snake with a hood").

Creole
French créole, from Castilian Spanish criollo, person native to a locality, from Portuguese crioulo, diminutive of cria, ("'person raised in one's house with no blood relation, a servant'"), < Portuguese criar ("'to rear, to raise, to bring up'"), from Latin creare, to beget; < Latin creo ("'to create'"), which came into English via French between 1595 and 1605. [same root as creature]

Dodo
According to Encarta Dictionary and Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, "dodo" comes from Portuguese doudo (currently, more often, doido) meaning "fool" or "crazy". The present Portuguese word dodô is of English origin. The Portuguese word doudo or doido may itself be a loanword from Old English (cp. English "dolt"). [Cp. may be an abbreviation of COMPARE TO] Origin: Dodo (plural dodos or dodoes); a large extinct flightless bird found on Mauritius (island located east of Madagascar) until the end of the 17th century. [Raphus cucullatus.] Origin: from Portuguese doudo 'simpleton' (because the birds were tame and easy to catch)

Jaguar
from Tupi or Guaraní jaguarete via Portuguese.

Macaw = Arara.
from macau; ultimately from Tupi macavuana.

Mandarin
from mandarim, from the Portuguese verb mandar (='to rule; to send') via the Dutch mandorijn, from the Malay mantri, from Hindi matri, from Sanskrit mantrin (="counsellor").

Manioc
from mandioca (="cassava") from Tupi mandioca.

Marmalade
from marmelada, a preserve made from marmelo (="quince").

Mulatto
from Portuguese mulato. From mula (=mule) a cross between a horse and a donkey or from the Arabic term muwallad, which means "a person of mixed ancestry"

Negro
Negro means "black" in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, being from the Latin word niger (Dative nigro, Accusative nigrum) and the Greek word Ν?γρος Negros both of the same meaning. It came to English through the Portuguese and Spanish slave trade. Prior to the 1970s, it was the dominant term for Black people of African origin; in most English language contexts (except its inclusion in the names of some organizations founded when the term had currency, e.g. the United Negro College Fund), it is now considered either archaic or a slur (insult) in most contexts.

As I always say, English is the easiest (foreign) language for a Brazilian to learn (except, perhaps, for Spanish, but then, what we usually speak is Portunhol).

If you are planning to take a course of conversational English, be sure to read, first, the book O QUE VOCÊ DEVE SABER ANTES DE ESTUDAR INGLÊS. It shows you how to achieve your goal in the fastest way possible.

Have an excellent weekend.