One of the main locations of the new Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree is Scadu Altus. However, it’s a pretty safe bet most people aren’t pronouncing the name of this location correctly. Here’s how it’s actually pronounced.
How is Scadu Altus Pronounced?
If you’re seeing the word Scadu for the first time, there’s a solid chance that you’re pronouncing the word like “ska-doo.” To be fair, that’s a fair estimation given the spelling and fantastical setting of Elden Ring, which features characters with names like Messmer, Miquella, and Thollier. However, that would be the incorrect way to pronounce it, as the word “scadu” is actually fairly common — albeit from an old tongue.
The word “scadu” that is used in Elden Ring traces its roots back to the Old English pronunciation of the word “shadow”. In Old English, what we now know today as “shadow” was spelled “sceadwe”. “Sceadwe” evolved into “shadwe” in the Middle Ages thanks to associations with the word “shade,” eventually leading to the modern-day spelling of “shadow”. Granted, there are a few different regional dialects of how “shadow” was originally spelled, with the Dutch writing it as “schaduw” and the Saxons writing it as “skado”, but the meaning and pronunciation haven’t changed.
To say “scadu”, a person would simply say it like we normally say shadow. In “scadu”, the “sc” creates a “sh” sound, much in the same way that “precious” or “vicious” have a “sh” sound in them, while the “du” sounds much like how we would say the word “owe.” When you combine them together, we get “Sh-A-Dowe”, aka, how most English speakers would say “shadow.”
With that in mind, the correct way to pronounce “Scadu Altus” is “Shadow Altus.” The Old English origins make sense given the focus on medieval imagery and iconography that Elden Ring appropriates for its setting. Just be glad it doesn’t go full Old English with all of its words, or we would be referring to yellow as “geoluhread.”
And that’s how you correctly pronounce Scadu Altus in Elden Ring.
Elden Ring and its DLC Shadow of the Erdtree are now available on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms.
