A Kyrgyz language app for iPhone and Android

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

You set a daily goal of 3, 5, 10 or 15 new words and can change it whenever your week changes. A session introduces the new words, shows each one inside a real example sentence with a cultural note where it helps, and mixes in the older words that are due for review.

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.

Three ways to practise

• Flashcards, for fast recall.
• Writing, where you build the word from its letters — the mode that makes ң, ө and ү stick.
• Matching, for pairing words with meanings under a little time pressure.

Culture, proverbs and riddles

Themed collections come with cultural notes, Kyrgyz proverbs — макалдар — and folk riddles — табышмактар. 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 TelemetryDeck.
• 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. The Android version is in open beta — you can join the beta list on the Söz home page and we will write when a place opens up.

What Söz does not do

It is honest to be clear about the edges. Söz does not yet have audio recordings for every word, it does not teach grammar as a structured course, and it will not by itself make you conversational — no vocabulary app will.

What it does well is build and hold a working vocabulary, which is the part of language learning that most reliably fails without a system. Conversation, grammar depth and listening practice are things to add alongside it.