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Cape Verdean Creole Interpreters

Professional Cape Verdean Creole interpreting, virtual or in person, for the settings where getting it wrong has consequences — asylum interviews, hearings, attorney meetings, medical appointments and school meetings.

Kriolu is not Portuguese, and Massachusetts stopped treating it as Portuguese in the 1970s

Can a Portuguese interpreter cover a Cape Verdean Creole speaker? Not for anything that matters: Kriolu grew out of Portuguese in the fifteenth century but is a creole with its own grammar and African influences, and Massachusetts recognized it as a separate "living foreign language" after Cape Verdean parents took the question to the State House in December 1975. Before that, the state treated Kriolu as a dialect of Portuguese — "which it certainly is not", as the educator Manuel da Luz Gonçalves wrote — and Cape Verdean children were made to learn Portuguese in order to learn English.

The difference is visible in a single sentence. The Massachusetts Trial Court's own Kriolu page opens Bu ten direitu di ten un Intérpriti gratis; in Portuguese that would be roughly Você tem direito a um intérprete gratuito ("you have the right to a free interpreter"). Many Cape Verdeans understand Portuguese, especially if they were schooled in it, but an older speaker or a witness under stress will give the account in Kriolu, and that is the language to book.

The courts and schools of Massachusetts already work in Kriolu

The Massachusetts Trial Court's Office of Language Access lists Cape Verdean among the languages covered by its staff and per-diem interpreters across roughly 140 court divisions, and the court publishes forms in Kriolu — the 209A abuse-prevention order application, waiver of counsel, waiver of defendant's rights, the child care or custody disclosure affidavit, the military affidavit and others. In a Massachusetts state court the court supplies the interpreter.

Boston Public Schools is opening its first Cabo Verdean Kriolu–English dual-language program in September 2026, starting with one K1 classroom of about 20 students at the Lilla G. Frederick School in Dorchester and adding a grade a year; the Dorchester Reporter describes it as believed to be the first such program anywhere, including in Cabo Verde. Districts have their own obligations for parent meetings. Where we are asked for Kriolu is around those institutions: attorney meetings, depositions, immigration matters, private medical practices, closings and family matters handled outside court.

Island varieties differ, and documents from Cabo Verde are in Portuguese

Kriolu is not standardized in speech or writing. Gonçalves notes that the Kriolu of Santo Antão differs markedly from that of Brava, and that even spelling — k or c for the same sound — has been argued over. Tell us which island the speaker is from, so that for testimony we can try to match it.

Portuguese was the colonial language of justice, schooling, taxation and defense, and it remained Cabo Verde's official language and classroom language after independence, so the birth certificates, police records and school transcripts in a Cape Verdean file are in Portuguese even when the person speaks Kriolu. The interpreter you need reads Portuguese and speaks Kriolu, and sight-translates from one into the other in the room.

The Census counts Kriolu speakers as Portuguese, so official figures undercount the need

The Census Bureau codes Kabuverdianu as its own language internally, but in its standard American Community Survey tables it files Kriolu under Portuguese to keep the figures comparable with years before 2016. The 247,638 Massachusetts residents and 33,142 Rhode Island residents shown as speaking Portuguese at home in 2024 therefore include Cape Verdeans along with Brazilians and Portuguese, and there is no published figure for Kriolu alone.

That is one reason "Portuguese" ends up on intake forms for Kriolu speakers, and why the error is so common. Ask the client which language they speak at home, and write "Cape Verdean Creole" or "Kriolu" on the request.

Cape Verdean Creole is a limited-availability language

There are comparatively few qualified Cape Verdean Creole interpreters working in the United States, and the ones there are get booked. That is why Cape Verdean Creole carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate, and why lead time matters more here than with a common language: a week is comfortable, two days is a gamble.

We would rather tell you that before you book a hearing date than after. If your date is fixed and close, say so when you enquire and we will tell you honestly whether we can staff it rather than accepting and hoping.

The standard-availability languages are: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Polish, Italian, German, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Tagalog, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Serbian, Bosnian, Somali and Nepali. Every other language we offer carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate. If a language is not on that list it is not because we cannot do it — it is because the pool of qualified interpreters in the United States is small enough that we will not promise a date without checking.

By video, by phone or in person

Virtual interpreting runs on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, or over the telephone. It is quicker to arrange, costs less and carries no travel charge, and it suits appointments, calls and most meetings.

In person is what venues with their own rules tend to expect, and the right choice when documents are being signed or several people are speaking at once. Tell us the platform, or the city and the venue, when you send the request.

Where interpretation is used

The settings differ in what they demand of the interpreter, which is worth saying because they are frequently priced as though they were the same work:

• Asylum and immigration interviews. USCIS asylum interviews require the applicant to bring an interpreter, and the interview can be rescheduled if the interpreter does not appear or is not competent — which makes this the setting where getting it right matters most.
• Attorney–client meetings and declarations. Preparing testimony, taking a statement, going through documents.
• Depositions and hearings. Where the record is being made and accuracy is examined afterwards.
• Medical appointments. Note that hospitals receiving federal funding generally must provide language assistance themselves, so ask before you hire.
• School meetings. IEP meetings and parent conferences — districts also have their own obligations here.
• Business meetings and signings, such as real estate closings.

Each setting has its own page — who has to provide the interpreter, what the meeting asks of one and what it costs: see interpreters by setting.

What it costs

Rates are per interpreter, per hour, and billed from the scheduled start time rather than from when everyone actually arrives.

• Virtual — $80 per hour, one-hour minimum. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams or telephone.
• In person — $110 per hour, two-hour minimum.
• Limited-availability languages — add 25–30%. Which languages those are is listed below rather than left vague.
• Travel for in-person work — $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location.

How the travel charge works out

Travel is charged at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, which means you can work it out rather than wait for a quote: a 20-mile round trip is $14, a 60-mile round trip is $42, a 150-mile round trip is $105. There is no separate call-out fee on top.

We will not pretend to know in advance where the interpreter will be coming from — that depends on the language, the date and the venue. What we do is confirm the interpreter and the exact travel figure before you book, so it is never a surprise on the invoice. Virtual assignments carry no travel charge at all, which is one reason most of what we do is virtual.

How booking an interpreter works

• You send the request with the form below: the language, the setting, the format, the date and how long it should last.
• We confirm before you commit: the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one. We reply the same business day, and no payment is taken at this stage.
• You confirm, and the interpreter is booked for your date.

What we will tell you before you book

Two things, both of which occasionally cost us the booking. Whether the venue supplies its own interpreter. Immigration court provides one. Hospitals receiving federal funding generally must provide language assistance. School districts have obligations of their own. If yours does, you should not be paying us — ask them first.

And whether we can actually staff your date. For a limited-availability language on short notice the honest answer is sometimes no, and we would rather say it than accept a booking we cannot fill. Interpretation is not translation: see certified translation at $24.95 per page if what you need is a document rendered in writing.

What to have ready

The more of this comes in the first message, the fewer exchanges before you have a price:

• The language, the date, the start time and how long it should run.
• Virtual or in person: the platform, or the city and the venue.
• The setting and the subject matter.
• How many people need interpreting for.
• Any credential the venue requires of the interpreter.

Request an interpreter

Tell us the date, the language and the setting and we will come back with the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one — before you commit to anything.

Sources

The facts on this page about the language and its speakers in the United States were checked against these sources on October 28, 2026.

• Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife — Manuel da Luz Gonçalves, Cape Verdean Kriolu in the United States (1995)
• Massachusetts Trial Court — Court forms and information in Cape Verdean Creole (archived November 2025)
• Massachusetts Trial Court — Facts about the Office of Language Access (archived December 31, 2024)
• Dorchester Reporter — First-ever Cape Verdean Kriolu-English program planned at reopened Frederick School (February 17, 2026)
• US Census Bureau — American Community Survey language code list
• Census Reporter — US Census Bureau ACS 2024 1-year, table B16001 (Massachusetts and Rhode Island)

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