A Kyrgyz language app for iPhone and iPad

What Söz is

Söz, the Kyrgyz word for "word", is a vocabulary-first app for learning Kyrgyz. It is aimed at three groups: complete beginners, people with Kyrgyz roots rebuilding a language they half-remember, and anyone living in or moving to Kyrgyzstan who wants to stop being a guest in the conversation.

It is made by a small independent team, without investors and without advertising. That shapes the product: there is no engagement machinery designed to keep you in the app longer than the learning requires.

How a session works

Söz builds a personal plan from your level, interests, daily goal and pace. The adaptive feed introduces useful words in real example sentences, adds pronunciation and cultural context, and mixes in older material when it is due for review. You can change your goal whenever your week changes.

Review that adapts to your memory

Söz uses adaptive spaced repetition. Each word is scheduled individually, based on how well you actually recalled it, so the words you find difficult come back sooner and the ones you know stop taking up your time. You are not repeating a fixed list on a fixed timetable.

Practice, listening, grammar and tests

• Flashcards, writing and matching turn recognition into active recall.
• Phrase, listening and grammar exercises put words into a wider language system.
• Vocabulary, grammar, reading and listening tests show what is secure and what needs another pass.
• Cyrillic and Latin-script display options help learners move toward confident Kyrgyz reading.

Culture, proverbs and riddles

Themed collections come with cultural notes, Kyrgyz proverbs (макалдар) and traditional riddles (табышмактар). The daily Besh Tamga challenge turns a five-letter Kyrgyz word into a small game. This is not decoration around the vocabulary: a word attached to a saying or an image is remembered far better than a word attached to a translation.

Widgets on the Home and Lock Screen

A Kyrgyz word and its example sentence can sit on your Home Screen or Lock Screen, so the language reaches you a few times a day without you opening anything. For a lot of people this ends up being the most effective feature in the app.

Offline, no account, no ads

• Core lessons and progress work fully on device, including on a plane or in the mountains.
• No sign-up, no email, no password: you open the app and start.
• No advertising and no cross-app tracking. Product analytics are anonymised through Mixpanel.
• Key progress can be mirrored to your own private iCloud storage when it is available.

Interface languages

The app interface is available in English and Russian, so you can learn Kyrgyz from either side. Explanations, meanings and cultural notes are written separately for each, not machine-translated from one into the other.

What it costs

Söz is free to download and free to use. An optional Söz Pro upgrade is available through Apple in-app purchase for people who want to support the project and unlock more. Nothing is hidden behind a countdown or a trial that quietly converts.

Platforms

Söz is available now on the App Store for iPhone and iPad and requires iOS or iPadOS 17 or later. The Android version is in open beta; join the beta list on the Söz home page and we will write when a place opens up.

What Söz does not do

Söz includes pronunciation, listening and grammar practice, but it is not a live teacher or full immersion environment and will not make anyone conversational by itself.

Its strength is turning vocabulary and core language skills into a routine that is easy to keep. Real conversations, longer listening and feedback from confident speakers still belong alongside the app.