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Roberto Henry Ebelt

O fato de mais de 60% das palavras inglesas que usamos no dia a dia (considerando os 5.000 vocábulos mais utilizados) portarem alguma semelhança com palavras portuguesas, sem dúvida, é uma grande vantagem para brasileiros que têm o inglês como segundo idioma. Uma das principais razões para haver tanta semelhança entre os vocabulários desses dois idiomas é a enorme influência que o latim exerceu sobre o inglês e o português. Português, todo o mundo sabe, é a última flor do Lácio, Latium*, em inglês e também em latim. O inglês, via de regra, não modifica nomes próprios latinos.

*Latium (Latin: Latium) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil on which resided the tribe of the Latins. It was located on the left bank (east and south) of the Tiber river, extending northward to the Anio river (a left-bank tributary of the Tiber) and southeastward to the Pomptina Palus (Pontine Marshes, now the Pontine Fields) as far south as the Circeian promontory. The right bank of the Tiber was occupied by the Etruscan city of Veii, and the other borders were occupied by Italic tribes. Subsequently Rome defeated Veii and then its Italic neighbors, expanding Latium to the Apennine Mountains in the northeast and to the opposite end of the marsh in the southeast. The modern descendant, the Italian Regione of Lazio, also called Latium in Latin, and occasionally in modern English, is somewhat larger still, but not as much as double the original Latium.

The ancient language of the Latins, the tribesmen who occupied Latium, was to become the immediate predecessor of the Old Latin language, ancestor of Latin and the Romance languages. Latium has played an important role in history owing to its status as the host of the capital city of Rome, at one time the cultural and political center of the Roman Empire. Consequently, Latium is home to celebrated works of art and architecture (Wikipedia).

É importante saber que a influência do latim sobre o inglês não é proveniente dos aproximadamente quatrocentos anos de domínio romano sobre a ilha da Inglaterra.

Leia a seguir sobre o início do domínio romano sobre a Britânia:

The Roman conquest of Britain was a gradual process, beginning effectively in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, whose general Aulus Plautius served as first governor of Britannia. Great Britain had already frequently been the target of invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. In common with other regions on the edge of the empire, Britain had enjoyed diplomatic and trading links with the Romans in the century since Julius Caesar's expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, and Roman economic and cultural influence was a significant part of the British late pre-Roman Iron Age, especially in the south.
Roman rule over Britain lasted until the first half of the 5th century AD.

Como já dissemos, a influência do latim sobre o idioma que hoje conhecemos como Modern English não se deve a esses quase 400 anos de domínio romano sobre a Britânia, embora muitos nomes geográficos da atual Grã Bretanha sejam de origem latina.

O que deixou o idioma inglês prenhe de vocábulos de origem latina foi a cristianização da Britânia que começou em 597 AD, com Augustine of Canterbury:

Augustine of Canterbury (* circa first third of the 6th century – † probably 26 May 604) was a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church.

Augustine was the prior of a monastery in Rome when Pope Gregory the Great chose him in 595 to lead a mission, usually known as the Gregorian mission, to Britain to Christianize King Æthelberht and his Kingdom of Kent from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism. Kent was probably chosen because Æthelberht had married a Christian princess, Bertha, daughter of Charibert I the King of Paris, who was expected to exert some influence over her husband. Before reaching Kent the missionaries had considered turning back but Gregory urged them on, and in 597 Augustine landed on the Isle of Thanet and proceeded to Æthelberht's main town of Canterbury.

Resumindo, apesar dos horrores que a igreja católica proporcionou ao mundo através das Cruzadas e da Inquisição, ela foi de suma importância na manutenção da cultura romana, na formação da moderna cultura ocidental, da qual todos nós nos beneficiamos, e na formação da língua inglesa.

Como inglês é, basicamente, fruto da mistura de PROTO-GERMÂNICO, LATIM, GREGO e FRANCÊS NORMANDO, fica fácil entender a razão de tantas palavras inglesas serem parecidas com palavras portuguesas: mais de ? do vocabulário inglês têm origem em idiomas que nos são familiares, em termos de vocabulário.

Have a nice weekend.