Language in the Narutoverse

So I’ve been thinking about writing something with one of the boys being multilingual.

From what I can gather at least from reading is that there is likely a common tongue in the Narutoverse but I think it would be fun if they had their own languages. So I was kinda looking for some ideas as to what languages would sort of fit the different nations.

People in Sunagakure speaking an Arabic language, like Egyptian or Mesopotamian Arabic, would be neat methinks. As for anyone else, hmmmm…Maybe South African for Kumogakure? Since English is also a widely used dialect in South Africa and Killer Bee could jump between Afrikaans and English for his rapping, which I think would be fun to mess with. Iwagakure people speaking Cantonese would be cool—like imagine the Tsuchikage ranting in Cantonese at Tsunade about his grievances with Konoha, and Tsunade, smart cookie she is, learned the languages of the other Kages so none of them could say anything she wouldn’t understand, so she knows exactly what he’s saying and is seconds away from putting her fist in his face. Shizune is the only reason the alliance didn’t end right there any then :laughing: That’s pretty much all the ideas I can come up with at the moment :sweat_smile:

Weirdly I had the same inclination for Kumo, and yes it would be so cool for Bee to switch while rapping. The idea for Suna also makes perfect sense in consideration to the terrain and the way they are drawn. I actually thought something more eastern European for Iwa because of the way they’re presented but Cantonese sounds way more fun but I’ll figure it out when I start writing. Thanks for the input :grin:

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Iwa was the one I struggled to think of one for, but ironically I originally thought Russian, which led me down a Wikipedia rabbit hole where I liked the Czech Republic and Slovak for them. But then I looked at pics of the Tsuchikage’s style of dress and appearance and it made me wonder if Kishimoto had been going for a weird cultural mixture for Iwa cause the kage had a somewhat traditional (if not characture-esque) Chinese look to him but the other notable characters were all over the place visually. Anyway, Eastern European definitely would be cool! :heart_eyes:

my friend and i came up with a bunch of cuisines for the various countries in naruto, though admittedly we’re quite asian-centric due to being well, asian. that being said, this is what we settled on:

Land of Fire, Konoha: pretty much Japan, with Japanese hegemony throughout the land, that’s why all the countries have Japanese-ish dress much like how American jeans spread throughout the world

Land of Wind, Suna: Spicy-hot bbq type food, with meat of choice goat/mutton, occasionally camel. Middle-east inspired type foods. I imagine they have that cool boiling coffee in sand thing too!

Land of Lightning, Kumo: with the fertile valleys around, food and veg is swiss-like, pork/meats sausages, with pickled vegetables and various hashes and imported herbs. Kumogakure tho, literally also has a lot more flying birds like geese and duck in the cuisine, so like smoked duck ramen.

Land of Water, Kiri: Russian/Norwegian type food, though heavy on the seafood stews, so a lot of fermented fish/meats, pickled vegetables. Very little greens. Water Country also has a basically protected method of preserving high value fish such as cod, such that they make boat loads of money exporting fresh fish all over, while other countries like Fire Country and Lightning, even if they have coast lines aren’t very good at sending fresh fish inland - so every other country capitals/inland cities, fresh fish are most likely from Water Country rather than from their own local coasts.

(Though thinking back and forth I found Kiri to be more similar to Indonesia and Philippines, if we’re being honest - but a heavy fish export and preservation makes sense too)

Earth Country, Iwa: Iwa mochi (crispy rice cake lol) . Mostly fertile lands, able to grow rice and other grains for export, so rice & noodles & wheat products, and own native herbs and spices that are traded seasonally. Main cuisine are curries & Stews, which are eaten with various kinds of rices, and bread wheat products like naan and pratas. They have loads of sweets too sweets too. They might also be growing sugar cane or beets somewhere.

(Though after a while I realised that the dress of Iwa nins were more similar to Chinese with their cheongsams. Still, we liked Indian food haha)

Amegakure: often wartorn, sandwiched between Earth Wind and fire. food is mostly freshwater mussels and fish from cultivated lakes such as freshwater carp.

Land of Grass, Kusa: food is mainly Mongolian style, fermented dairy products, meat etc.

Land of Rice Fields, Oto: food be catfish and rice and coconut. Somewhat more Thai-ish. (Entirely a self-indulgent headcanon)

Land of Hot Springs, Yugakure A lot of oden, apparently

Land of Rivers, Tani Chinese foods! Cantonese stuff, like steamed fish and dimsum, also crocodile, because native crocs in them rivers and deltas. Possibly crabs too. (As mentioned earlier I would probably swap Tani and Iwa in terms of cuisine…)

But essentially, if there were any dialects, I’d settle on that according to the cuisines.

[Obligatory plug for my friend’s fic, a fic where Nohara Rin survives getting the Sanbi stuffed into her and goes on to be volatile and alive.]

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Awesome, I have a lot of stuff to work with now :grin: