Press room

Updated 5 October 2026

Press contact: Ahcène Bensalama and Nabil Meghni, co-founders — [email protected]

An interview, a figure to check, a visual in another format: write to us, one of the two of us will answer.

Dialect is an app for learning your parents' language, the way it is actually spoken at home. It teaches 19 languages the big platforms rarely teach, ten of them recorded by native speakers. Five minutes a day, with flashcards, quizzes and a step-by-step path.

The facts
Story angles
Calendar
The story
Boilerplate
The languages
Visuals

The facts

Name	Dialect (website: mydialect.io)
Spelling	Dialect (the French word “dialecte” is not the name)
What it is	An app for learning your heritage language
Languages	19, of which 10 are recorded by native speakers
Platforms	iPhone and iPad (App Store); Android and desktop through the web app
Interface languages	French, English, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch
Price	Free to start, Premium subscription for full access
First release	24 February 2026 on the App Store
Rating	4.7 out of 5 from 135 ratings (App Store France, 30 September 2026)
Founders	Ahcène Bensalama and Nabil Meghni
Funding	No outside investors

Story angles

The language that stops after one generation

In many immigrant families, parents speak the language to each other and switch to the country's language with their children. The children understand it without speaking it; one generation later, it has left the home. Dialect is for those adults who want to pick it up again.

Languages the big platforms do not teach

As of 30 September 2026, Duolingo's catalogue offered no course in Kabyle, Wolof, Breton, Malagasy, Tamil, Lingala or Kurdish. Yet millions of people speak these languages, many of them in Europe and North America.

Real voices, and openness about the rest

Ten languages are recorded by native speakers. The others use a synthetic voice checked by ear, a partial recording (Fula), or are offered in writing only (Bambara, hieroglyphs). The app says so, language by language.

Two friends, no investors

Dialect was built by two children of immigrants, Ahcène Bensalama and Nabil Meghni, without outside funding. The first version reached the App Store on 24 February 2026.

Calendar: when to cover it

28 OctoberInternational Creole Day. See Creole.
12 JanuaryYennayer, the Amazigh new year. See Kabyle.
21 FebruaryInternational Mother Language Day (UNESCO).
21 MarchNewroz, the Kurdish new year. See Kurdish (Kurmanji).

The story

Ahcène Bensalama and Nabil Meghni grew up in France in families where another language was spoken at home. As adults, they looked for a simple way to pick it up again and found none for their languages. They built the app they wish they had had at twenty.

“People don't want to learn a neutral version of their language. They want to speak the way their mother speaks.”
— Ahcène Bensalama, co-founder of Dialect

Boilerplate

Free to reuse, as is or adapted.

Short version. Dialect is an app for learning your parents' language, the way it is actually spoken at home. It teaches 19 languages largely missing from the big platforms, ten of them recorded by native speakers.

Long version. In many immigrant families, the language stops after one generation: the parents speak it, the children understand it, the grandchildren no longer do. Dialect starts from there. You learn five minutes a day, with flashcards, quizzes and a step-by-step path built on the vocabulary of family life. The app teaches 19 languages, from Kabyle to Tamil, on iPhone, iPad and in the browser. It was created by Ahcène Bensalama and Nabil Meghni, without investors.