Heritage, wrapped in puzzles.

Why we built Linguistic Quest

Linguistic Quest was founded in 2024 by a small team of parents, educators and software engineers split between the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe. We had all watched the same thing happen in our own homes and in friends’ homes: a grandparent who speaks beautiful Shona, Yoruba or Portuguese sits next to a grandchild who understands only the greetings. A language that survived colonisation, migration and three generations of upheaval risks quietly fading in a single childhood of English-only screens.

Conventional language apps did not solve this. They were built for adult commuters learning a second language for work or holidays — long solo streaks, translation drills, and a heavy grammar focus. None of it matched how heritage languages are actually transmitted in families: in short, joyful, shared moments over meals, school runs and car journeys. So we built something different: a puzzle platform that brings parents, children and grandparents around the same screen for five to fifteen minutes at a time.

The first language we launched with was Shona — because it is the language of our own families, and because when we looked, almost no one else was publishing high-quality Shona learning products for children. We added Ndebele, Yoruba, Swahili, French and Portuguese next, each one reviewed by native-speaker contributors from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Tanzania, Senegal and Mozambique. Spanish, Zulu, Xhosa, Amharic, Hausa, Igbo, Chichewa and Afrikaans are in active preparation, with Spanish next on the calendar.

Our editorial process

Every word, phrase and cultural note on Linguistic Quest is drafted by our in-house editorial team in London and reviewed by at least one native-speaker contributor before it reaches a child. Our review panel is distributed: Shona and Ndebele contributors in Harare and Bulawayo, Yoruba contributors in Lagos and London, Swahili reviewers in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, French reviewers in Paris and Dakar, and Portuguese reviewers in Lisbon and Maputo.

Pronunciation is produced with state-of-the-art AI voice synthesis (ElevenLabs and, where the quality is higher, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud voices for that language) and flagged for correction whenever a reviewer notices a tonal or stress error. We treat the AI voice as a helpful first pass, not a final authority — and we encourage families and teachers to correct it, out loud, as they play.

Corrections are welcomed at hello@linguisticquest.com. We aim to respond to every reasonable correction within 10 working days.

Child safety & data posture

Linguistic Quest is designed from the ground up for use by children aged 5 and above, under the supervision of a parent, carer or teacher. We do not operate chat, direct messaging, comments, photo sharing or any other user-to-user feature. Children play inside a profile created and administered by their parent — never a standalone account with a login of their own.

Advertising on the free tier is limited to short, family-friendly, non-behavioural placements sold through Google's H5 Games Ads framework. We do not allow advertising categories that are unsuitable for children — gambling, alcohol, dating, political advocacy or adult content are excluded at source. Paid plans carry no advertising at all.

Full details of how we handle data — what we collect, where it is stored, how long we keep it, and how you can request deletion — are set out in our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy and Advertising Policy.

Publisher information