Summary
Elden Ringand itsShadow of the Erdtree DLC expansionare all the rage right now. And for good reason, Elden Ring was already one of the best games of its year, and quite possibly the best game to come from FromSoftware. Its Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is no exception.Our James Troughton said in their review, “Shadow of the Erdtree doesn’t just iterate on Elden Ring, it looks at FromSoftware’s past decade and enriches the best ideas to embellish them with all the lessons learned.”
Speaking of lessons learned, there’s an actual interesting one to be had with Shadow of the Erdtree. You see, Shadow of the Erdtreemakes great use of a new element called Scadutree Fragments. In the scheme of the DLC, the Scadutree Fragments help make your character strong,and serve as a viable resource in order to tackle the DLC. It’s a unique resource, and a super helpful one at that.
The problem is, this entire time, we (as in the collective gaming audience) have likely been pronouncing Scadutree wrong this entire time. If you are one of the many who have called it “Ska-DOO-tree” or “SCA-doo-tree,” or the like, you’ve been saying it wrong. Not just normal wrong, but, like, blatantly wrong.
How To Properly Pronounce Scadutree
In an all-encompassing video detailing Elden Ring’s many secrets,YouTuber VaatiVidyahas enlightened us on how to properly pronounce Scadutee, along with an actual lesson on how it gained its name.
OK, so to start, Scadutree is meant to be pronounced as such: “SHA-DOO-tree” or “Shadowtree.” This isn’t a joke, as there’s a good reason why it’s that and not “Ska-DOO-tree.”
As it turns out, Scadutree, according to VaatiVidya and as researched by TheGamer, stems from old English. That’s because the word Scadu of Scadutree comes from the old English way of saying what we now know as Shadow.Back then, according to the Etymology Dictionary, “Shadow” was spelled and pronounced as “sceadwe” or “sceaduwe.”
The SC that prefaces the rest of the word was used for sounds that we now know as “sh,” like “Shadow” or “Shoosh.“That info comes from University of Lethbridge English professor Daniel Paul O’Donnell. So, by combining that pronunciation with the Old English word of “Sceadwe,” you get what is now “Shadow.”
What was “Sceadwe,” then morphed into “Sceadu,” and down the line eventually became “Shadow.” Therefore, Shadows of the Erdtree literally has Shadowtree fragments, or “SHA-DOO-tree,” if you want to be extra correct. Knowledge is power, so go on and educate your friends or pull this out during a round of bar trivia.
