Learning Kriolu or Portuguese?

[u/_dudz]

I recently found out that I’m half Cape Verdean from my fathers side and have reconnected with him (thanks 23andMe!) and it has been fantastic learning about a huge family I never knew existed but I’m finding it difficult to communicate with him as his English isn’t great.

I’d like to learn Kriolu to be able to have deeper conversations but I can’t find any good resources and it’s not available to learn on Duolingo. Would I be better off learning Portuguese instead? Which language would be easier to pick up?

Thank you 🙏🏾

[u/ZeePintor]

That can be a personal choice. I am portuguese and my wife is cape verdean. All of her family understands portuguese. So if you want a more useful language, no doubt portuguese will be easier and will enable you to speak to a bigger audience (Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde, Angola, etc). If you want to speak to their heart, you can go for kriolu, but resources are limited and even kriolu from island to island can vary.

[u/_dudz → u/ZeePintor]

Thank you 🙏🏾 my family are from Santo Antao, i didn’t know that Kriolu can differ based on the island

Does learning Portuguese make picking up Kriolu later on a little bit easier?

[u/ZeePintor → u/_dudz]

I would say yes. I can already pick up few words by just adapting a direct translation. Other nice feature of kriolu is that don't conjugate on person, like english. Portuguese can be harder on that aspect. Learning portuguese can also later make it easier to learn spanish. By learning it you will understand 80-90% spanish by default on listening (not speaking).
But as any language, learning a new language is quite hard if you can't immerse in it and have people to speak with.

[u/iaminabox → u/_dudz]

Yes, very much so.

[u/fidjudisomada]

Check this out: Kriolish.

[u/glitterfae1]

There used to be a user made kriolu course on Memrise, not sure if it’s there anymore. I only got as far as some words on there. The rest that I know, comes from trying to translate lyrics with my Portuguese knowledge (a lot of words are a bit like a phonetic spelling of Portuguese pronunciation). Other words I used dictionaries and joined a Telegram group for when there were lyrics I couldn’t figure out (figurative lines for example)

[u/glitterfae1]

Here’s some prepositions and short phrases to get you started.

Kal/qual=Qual

Ka =Não

Kel/kes = Aquele/aqueles

Ker/kria/kreba =Quer

Ken= Quem

Ki= Que

Komu = Como, visto que

Kré= Crê (believe, suppose)

Mo ki/kumá (modi) = Como?

Di módu(modi) ki=De modo que

Mo/mon= Mão, punhado

Má= Mas

Modi/módi= Modo, maneira

Nhos= Senhores, vocês

Si/sin/asi/asin = Assim

Si ki= Assim que

Si mé= Assim mesmo

…más di ki si= Ainda mais

Si, s’[word]= Se

Si= Seu

[u/jamesbrown2500]

Let's learn the basics. If you find a beautiful girl from Cabo Verde,you must be able to say.

Bô é Nha cretcheu

Mi ma bo.

[u/NaturalMystic11]

Most definitely Kriolu. Kriolish and Mili-Mila are great resources. You can also find Kriolu tutors on Preply.

[u/NaturalMystic11 → u/NaturalMystic11]

I forgot to add, Mila-Mila has an app similar to Babbel and other language learning apps. Definitely check it out.

Also, I’d be interested in learning more about your story. So cool! How did your parents meet?

[u/Basic-Definition2126]

Modi ka ta podi papia?

[u/nadandocomgolfinhos]

Kriolu

[u/DutchMaster2388]

Learn Kriolou! Its the language of our people!