Vocative case
Encyclopedia
The vocative case is the case
used for a noun
identifying the person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed and/or occasionally the determiners of that noun. A vocative expression is an expression of direct address, wherein the identity of the party being spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence. For example, in the sentence, "I don't know, John," John is a vocative expression indicating the party who is being addressed, as opposed to the sentence "I don't know John," where John is the direct object of the verb, "know."
Historically, the vocative case was an element of the Indo-European
system of cases, and existed in Latin
, Sanskrit
, and Classical Greek
. Although it has been lost by many modern Indo-European languages, some languages have retained the vocative case to this day. Examples are Modern Greek
, Albanian
, Baltic languages
such as Lithuanian
and Latvian
, Slavic languages
such as Polish
, Czech
, Croatian
, Serbian
, Ukrainian
, Macedonian
, Bulgarian
, and the modern Celtic languages
such as Scottish Gaelic
and Irish
. Among the Romance languages
the vocative was preserved in Romanian
: it is also visible sometimes, in languages such as Catalan
or Portuguese
which employ the personal article but drop it in front of vocative forms. In Extremaduran and Fala language
, some post-tonical vowels open in vocative forms of nouns, but it is a new development which doesn't come from the Latin vocative case. It also occurs in some non-Indo-European languages, such as Georgian
.
|Case
|Proto-Indo-European
|Latin
|Classical Greek
|Sanskrit
|-
|Nominative case
|*wl̥kʷ-o-s
|lup-u-s
|λύκ-ο-ς (lúk-o-s)
|vr̥k-a-s
|-
|Vocative case
|*wl̥kʷ-e-Ø
|lup-e-Ø
|λύκ-ε (lúk-e-Ø)
|vr̥k-a-Ø
|}>
Notes on notation: The elements separated with hyphens denote the stem, the so-called thematic vowel of the case and the actual suffix. The symbol "Ø" means that there is no suffix in a place where other cases may have one. In Latin, e.g., the nominative case is lupus and the vocative case is lupe, whereas the accusative case is lupum. The asterisk before the Proto-Indo-European words means that they are theoretical reconstructions, not attested in a written source. The symbol ̥ (ring below) indicates a consonant serving as a vowel; it should appear directly below the "l" or "r" in these examples, but may appear after them due to font display issues.
operates in a similar fashion to Scottish Gaelic. The principal marker is the vocative particle a which causes lenition
of the initial letter.
In the singular there is no special form except for first declension nouns. These are masculine nouns ending in a broad (non-palatal) consonant which is made slender (palatal) to build the singular vocative (as well as the singular genitive and plural nominative). Adjectives are also lenited. In many cases this means that (in the singular) masculine vocative expressions resemble the genitive
and feminine vocative expressions resemble the nominative
.
The vocative plural is usually the same as the nominative plural except once again for first declension nouns which show the vocative plural by adding -a.
| colspan=2 |Gender
|colspan=2, align=center |masculine
|colspan=2, align=center |feminine
|align=center |m
|align=center |f
|-
| colspan=2 |English
|the big man
|the big boy
|the big woman
|the big hen
|John
|Mary
|-
| rowspan=3, align=center |Sg.
|Nominative
|an fear mór
|an buachaill mór
|an bhean mhór
|an chearc mhór
|Seán
|Máire
|-
|Genitive
|an fhir mhóir
|an bhuachalla mhóir
|na mná móire
|na circe móire
|Sheáin
|Mháire
|-
|Vocative
|a fhir mhóir
|a bhuachaill mhóir
|a bhean mhór
|a chearc mhór
|a Sheáin
|a Mháire
|-
| rowspan=3, align=center |Pl.
|Nominative
|na fir móra
|na buachaillí móra
|na mná móra
|na cearca móra
|colspan=2, rowspan=3 |
|-
|Genitive
|na bhfear mór
|na mbuachaillí móra
|na mban mór
|na gcearc mór
|-
|Vocative
|a fheara móra
|a bhuachaillí móra
|a mhná móra
|a chearca móra
|-
|}>
, the vocative case causes lenition
of the initial letter of names. In addition, male names are slenderized, if possible (that is, adds an 'i' before the final consonant). Also, the word a is placed before the name unless it begins with a vowel (or f followed immediately by a vowel, which becomes silent when lenited), e.g.:
|Nominative case
|Vocative case
|-
|Caitrìona
|a Chaitrìona
|-
|Domhnull
|a Dhòmhnaill
|-
|Màiri
|a Mhàiri
|-
|Seumas
|a Sheumais
|-
|Ùna
|Ùna
|-
|}>
The name “Hamish” is just the English spelling of “Sheumais”, and thus is actually a Gaelic vocative. Likewise, the name “Vairi” is an English spelling of “Mhàiri”.
has retained the vocative case, with the particle being the same as in Scottish Gaelic and Irish, "a", and causing the second state mutation in the following word. Manx
has the vocative case, at least to the extent of initial lenition, as has Welsh. Breton
seems to have lost the vocative.
lacks a formal (morphological) vocative case. English commonly uses the nominative case
for vocative expressions, but sets them off from the rest of the sentences with pauses as interjections (rendered in writing as commas). Two common uses of the vocative case in English are the phrases "Mr. President" and "Madam Chairman".
Historically, or in poetic or rhetorical speech, the vocative role in English may also be shown by prefacing the noun or noun phrase with the English word "O". This is often seen in the King James Version of the Bible
: for example, "O ye of little faith" (in Matthew
8:26). Another well-known example is the recurrent use of the vocative phrase, O (my) Best Beloved, by Rudyard Kipling
in his Just So Stories
. This use of O may be considered a form of clitic
, and should not be confused with the interjection "Oh" (The Chicago Manual of Style
, 15th edition, section 5.197). However, as the Oxford English Dictionary
points out, "O" and "Oh" were originally used interchangeably. With the advent of "Oh" as a written interjection
; however, "O" is the preferred modern spelling of the vocative in English.
See also Apostrophe (figure of speech)
.
, although a very few words retain an archaic vocative declension from Latin, such as the word Jesús, which is in vocative Jesú. This comes from Latin, as the Latin word for Jesus is simply Jesus and the vocative of that word is Jesu.
Example:
The native words sonur ("son") and vinur ("friend") also sometimes appear in the shoretened forms son and vin in vocative phrases. Additionally, adjectives in vocative phrases are always weakly declined, whereas elsewhere with proper nouns, they would usually be declined strongly.
Traditional male names usually have a vocative case.
More recent names and foreign names may have a vocative form but it is not used (Ричарде, instead of simply Ричард (Richard) sounds strange and funny).
Vocative phrases like господин министре (Mr. Minister) have almost completely given place to the corresponding common case forms, especially in official writings.
Proper nouns usually also have vocative forms, even though they are used less frequently. The following are examples of proper nouns that are frequently used in vocative:
Vocative case forms also normally exist for female given names:
Except for the forms ending in -е, these are considered rude and are normally avoided. Exception are female kinship terms, whose vocative is always used: баба/бабо (Granny), мама/мамо (Mom), леля/лельо (aunt), сестра/сестро (sister).
, the vocative (5. pád) differs from the nominative in masculine and feminine noun
s in singular
.
!Nominative case
!Vocative case
|-
|paní Eva (Ms Eve)
|paní Evo! (Ms Eve!)
|-
|pan profesor (Mr Professor)
|pane profesore! (Mr Professor!)
|-
|Kryštof (Christoph)
|Kryštofe! (Christoph!)
|-
|Marek (Mark)
|Marku!
|-
|knížka (book)
|knížko!
|-
|}>
In informal speech, it is usual that the male surname
(see also Czech name
) is in nominative when addressing men, e.g. pane Novák! instead of pane Nováku! (Female surnames are adjective
s, thus they are the same in the nominative as well as in the vocative—see Czech declension
.) Teachers often address their pupils with the surname in nominative. However, such addressing can seem impolite. Using the appropriate vocative is strongly recommended in the official and written styles.
Exceptions: nouns ending in -ėjas, such as "vėjas": "vėjau" (wind) and "siuvėjas": "siuvėjau" (sewer).
Male names belonging to this declension have an -ai ending in the vocative case: "Jonas" – "Jonai". Diminutive forms are normally used without an ending ("broliuk") (little brother), but a full form is also valid ("broliukai").
Female names, such as Rasa, Rūta, etc., are spelled in the same way in the vocative case, but undergo a stress change. In the nominative case the last syllable needs to be stressed; in the vocative case, the second last: Ilona (nominative) – Ilona (vocative).
Some nouns of this declension (both proper ones and not) are also stressed differently: "aikštė": "aikšte" (square). The ending of diminutive forms is usually omitted: "sesutė": "sesut" (little sister).
, the vocative (wołacz) is formed as follows: Feminine nouns usually take -o, except those ending in -sia, -cia, -nia, and -dzia which take -u, and those ending in -ść which take -i. Masculine nouns generally follow the complex pattern of the locative case, with the exception of a handful of words such as Bóg → Boże ("God"), ojciec → ojcze ("father") and chłopiec → chłopcze ("boy"). Neuter nouns and all plural nouns are the same as in the nominative case
. Here are some examples:
!Nominative case
!Vocative case
|-
| Feminine
|-
|Pani Ewa (Ms Eve)
|Pani Ewo! (Ms Eve!)
|-
|Ewusia (diminutive form of Ewa)
|Ewusiu!
|-
|ciemność (darkness)
|ciemności!
|-
|książka (book)
|książko!
|-
| Masculine
|-
|Pan profesor (Mr. Professor)
|Panie profesorze! (Mr. Professor!)
|-
|Krzysztof (Christopher)
|Krzysztofie! (Christopher!)
|-
|Krzyś (Chris)
|Krzysiu! (Chris!)
|-
|wilk (wolf)
|wilku!
|}>
The nominative is increasingly used in place of the vocative when adressing people with their proper names. In other contexts the vocative remains prevalent. It is used:
The vocative is also often employed in affectionate and endearing contexts such as Kocham Cię, Krzysiu! ("I love you, Chris!") or Tęsknię za Tobą, moja Żono. ("I miss you, my wife.") In addition, the vocative form sometimes takes the place of the nominative in informal conversations, e.g. "Józiu przyszedł" instead of "Józio przyszedł" (Joe came).
The historical Slavic
vocative has been lost in Russian
, and currently can only be found in certain cases of archaic expressions. Few of those expressions, mostly of religious origin, are very common in colloquial Russian: "Боже!" (Bozhe, vocative of "Бог" Bog, "God"), often also used in expression "Боже мой!" (Bozhe moy, "My God!"), and "Господи!" (Gospodi, vocative of "Господь" Gospod, "Lord"), which can also be expressed as "Господи Иисусе!" (Gospodi Iisuse!, Iisuse vocative of "Иисус" Iisus, "Jesus"), vocative is also used in prayers, e.g. "Отче наш!" (Otche nash, "Our Father!"). These expressions are used to express strong emotions (much like English "O my God!"), and are often combined ("Господи, Боже мой"). More examples of historical vocative can be found in other Biblical quotes that are sometimes used as proverbs, e.g. "Врачу, исцелися сам" (Vrachu, istselisya sam, "Physician, heal thyself", cf. nominative "врач", vrach). Vocative forms are also used in modern Church Slavonic. The patriarch and bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church
are addressed as "владыко"(vladyko, hegemon, cf. nominative "владыка", vladyka). In the latter case the vocative form is often also incorrectly used as nominative to refer to bishops and the patriarchs.
In modern colloquial Russian given names and a small family of terms often take a special "shortened" form that some linguists consider to be a reemerging vocative case. This form is applied only to given names and nouns that end in -a and -я, which are optionally dropped in the vocative form: "Лен, где ты?" ("Lena, where are you?"). This is basically equivalent to "Лена, где ты?", the only difference being that the former version suggests a positive personal, emotional bond between the speaker and the person being addressed. Names ending in -я acquire a soft sign
in this case: "Оль!" = "Оля!" ("Olga!"). In addition to given names, this form is often used with words like "мама" (mama, mom) and "папа" (papa, dad), which would be respectively "shortened" to "мам" (mam) and "пап" (pap). In plural this form is used with words such as "ребят", "девчат" (nomenative: "ребята" "девчата", guys gals).
Such usage differs from historical vocative (which would be "Leno" in the example above) and is not related to such historical usage.
was recognised and taught at schools. Today the case is considered lost from the language, with only a few archaic examples of the original vocative remaining in religious, literary or ironic context, such as
In everyday use, the Czech vocative is sometimes retrofitted to certain words, such as
Another stamp of vernacular vocative is emerging, presumably under the influence of the Hungarian language
for certain family members or proper names, such as
has retained the vocative case, in contrast to the other, closely related East Slavic languages
, Belarusian
and Russian
. See Ukrainian grammar#Morphology for details.
the form of the vocative case of a noun is the same as the nominative
, except for singular second-declension nouns that end in -us in the nominative case. An example would be the famous line from Shakespeare, "Et tu, Brute?" (commonly translated as "And you, Brutus?"), where Brute is the vocative case and Brutus would be the nominative case
.
Nouns ending in -ius have distinct vocatives, but instead of the expected ending -ie they simply end with -ī. Thus, Julius becomes Julī and filius becomes filī. This shortening does not shift the accent, so the vocative of Vergilius is Vergilī, with accent on the first i, even though it is short. Nouns ending in -aius and -eius have vocatives ending in -aī or -eī even though the i is consonantal in the stem.
First and second declension adjectives also have distinct vocative forms in the masculine singular whenever the nominative ends in -us, with the ending -e. Adjectives ending in -ius have vocatives in -ie; thus the vocative of eximius is eximie.
Nouns and adjectives ending in -eus do not follow the rules above. Meus forms the vocative irregularly as mī, while deus does not have a distinct vocative, and retains the form deus. "My God!" in Latin is thus mī deus!, though Jerome
's Vulgate
consistently (and in deviation from classical use) uses deus meus as a vocative.
is inherited from Latin. Morphologically it is built using specific endings, occasionally causing other morphophonemic changes (see also the article on Romanian nouns
):
Often in formal speech the vocative simply copies the nominative/accusative form, even when it does have its own. This happens because the vocative is often perceived as very direct and thus can seem rude.
is not marked by any ending, since Venetian has lost case endings as most Romance languages, but it is still visible on feminine proper names due to the absence of the determiner; i.e. the personal article Ła / L' which usually precedes feminine names in other cases, even in predicates. Thus, vocative case is distinguished from both nominative and accusative cases although none of them bears endings nor prepositions. On the contrary, masculine names and other nouns only rely on intonation and voice breaks.
The (presence/absence of the) personal article in feminine proper names also distinguishes the vocative case from predicates, differently from the definite article ła of common nouns which is dropped even in predicative constructions.
In some vernacular German
, where it is common to use the (gender-)appropriate article before a person's name, the article is, as in Venetian, omitted when calling the person.
does have a vocative case. For instance, in the Kurdish dialect of Kurmanji
, this case is created by adding the suffix of -o at the end of masculine
words and the -ê suffix at the end of feminine
ones.
Examples:
!Arabic name
!Kurdish vocative
|-
| Abdullah (m)
| Apo
|-
| Mostafa (m)
| Misto
|-
| Mahmud (f)
| Maho
|-
| Sayyid (m)
| Saydo
|-
| Zaynab (f)
| Zaynê
|-
| Fatima (f)
| Fattê
|}>
It is also possible to create the vocative without using the inflection suffix by using separate words. For this, Lê (feminine) and Lo (masculine) is used.
Examples:
! Name
! Vocative
|-
| Azad (m)
| Lo Azad!
|-
| Diyar (f)
| Lo Diyar!
|}>
Generally, Kurdish female names are ending with the -ê suffix, and male names with -o. Examples are Nazê, Gulê, Derdo, Şemo, Aso, Memo.
only has three cases, the nominative, accusative and genitive. However, a meaning similar to that conveyed by the vocative case in other languages is indicated by the use of the particle ya placed before a noun. In English translations, this is often translated literally as O instead of being omitted.
, the vocative case is used for addressing the second singular and plural persons. For the word roots ending with a consonant, the vocative case suffix is -o, and for the words ending with a vowel, there is no suffix for the vocative case (the suffix used to be -v in old Georgian, but is now considered archaic). For example, kats- is the root for the word "man." If one addresses someone with this word, it becomes, katso!
Adjectives are also declined in the vocative case. Just like nouns, consonant final stem adjectives take the suffix -o in the vocative case, and the vowel final stems are not changed. Compare:
In the second phrase, both the adjective and the noun are declined. The second singular and plural personal pronouns are also declined in the vocative case. Shen you(singular) and tkven you (plural) in the vocative case become, she! and tkve!, with the drop of the final -n. Therefore one could, for instance, say,
She lamazo kalo! "you beautiful woman!"
with the declination of all the elements.
The particle は marks the subject of the first sentence, i.e. it is the nominative case marker; the particle を marks the object, i.e. it is the accusative case marker.
In the second sentence, there is no particle following 田中さん thus making it vocative.
Note that particles は and が are also frequently omitted in colloquial speech without making a word vocative. Example: 田中さん部長を訪問 Mr. Tanaka visits the boss.
In archaic Japanese, or when written as verse
, a particle よ and や may be affixed.
is commonly used with first names in casual situations. This is done by suffixing 아 (a) if the name ends in a consonant and 야 (ya) if in a vowel:
미진은 집에 가겠어? (Mijin-eun chibe kagesseo?)
"Is Mijin going home?"
미진아, 집에 가겠어? (Mijin-a, chibe kagesseo?)
"Mijin, are you going home?
동배 뭐 해? (Dongbae meo hae?)
What is Dongbae doing?
동배야, 뭐 해? (Dongbae-ya, meo hae?)
"Dongbae, what are you doing?
In formal and somewhat archaic Korean, words are suffixed with 여 (yeo) if ending in a vowel and 이여 (iyeo) if ending in a consonant. The use of these suffixes is similar to that of the Japanese よ. Thus, 少年よ、大志を抱け (Boys, be ambitious, quote by William S. Clark) would be translated as
청년들이여 대망을 가져라. (Cheongnyeondeul-iyeo, taemangeul kajyeora.)
Boys, be ambitious.
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
used for a noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
identifying the person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed and/or occasionally the determiners of that noun. A vocative expression is an expression of direct address, wherein the identity of the party being spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence. For example, in the sentence, "I don't know, John," John is a vocative expression indicating the party who is being addressed, as opposed to the sentence "I don't know John," where John is the direct object of the verb, "know."
Historically, the vocative case was an element of the Indo-European
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
system of cases, and existed in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
, and Classical Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
. Although it has been lost by many modern Indo-European languages, some languages have retained the vocative case to this day. Examples are Modern Greek
Modern Greek
Modern Greek refers to the varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the "modern" period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic...
, Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
, Baltic languages
Baltic languages
The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe...
such as Lithuanian
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
and Latvian
Latvian language
Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language...
, Slavic languages
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
such as Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
, Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
, Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
, Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
, Macedonian
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
, Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
, and the modern Celtic languages
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
such as Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
and Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
. Among the Romance languages
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
the vocative was preserved in Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
: it is also visible sometimes, in languages such as Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
or Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
which employ the personal article but drop it in front of vocative forms. In Extremaduran and Fala language
Fala language
Fala is a Romance linguistic variety commonly classified in the Portuguese-Galician subgroup, with some traits from Leonese, spoken in Spain by about 10,500 people, of whom 5,500 live in a valley of the northwestern part of Extremadura near the border with Portugal...
, some post-tonical vowels open in vocative forms of nouns, but it is a new development which doesn't come from the Latin vocative case. It also occurs in some non-Indo-European languages, such as Georgian
Georgian language
Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 4 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad...
.
Three historical Indo-European languages
Take, for example, the word for "wolf":|Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
|Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
|Classical Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
|Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
|-
|Nominative case
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
|*wl̥kʷ-o-s
|lup-u-s
|λύκ-ο-ς (lúk-o-s)
|vr̥k-a-s
|-
|Vocative case
|*wl̥kʷ-e-Ø
|lup-e-Ø
|λύκ-ε (lúk-e-Ø)
|vr̥k-a-Ø
|}>
Notes on notation: The elements separated with hyphens denote the stem, the so-called thematic vowel of the case and the actual suffix. The symbol "Ø" means that there is no suffix in a place where other cases may have one. In Latin, e.g., the nominative case is lupus and the vocative case is lupe, whereas the accusative case is lupum. The asterisk before the Proto-Indo-European words means that they are theoretical reconstructions, not attested in a written source. The symbol ̥ (ring below) indicates a consonant serving as a vowel; it should appear directly below the "l" or "r" in these examples, but may appear after them due to font display issues.
Irish
The vocative case in IrishIrish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
operates in a similar fashion to Scottish Gaelic. The principal marker is the vocative particle a which causes lenition
Lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...
of the initial letter.
In the singular there is no special form except for first declension nouns. These are masculine nouns ending in a broad (non-palatal) consonant which is made slender (palatal) to build the singular vocative (as well as the singular genitive and plural nominative). Adjectives are also lenited. In many cases this means that (in the singular) masculine vocative expressions resemble the genitive
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
and feminine vocative expressions resemble the nominative
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
.
The vocative plural is usually the same as the nominative plural except once again for first declension nouns which show the vocative plural by adding -a.
|colspan=2, align=center |masculine
|colspan=2, align=center |feminine
|align=center |m
|align=center |f
|-
| colspan=2 |English
|the big man
|the big boy
|the big woman
|the big hen
|John
|Mary
|-
| rowspan=3, align=center |Sg.
|Nominative
|an fear mór
|an buachaill mór
|an bhean mhór
|an chearc mhór
|Seán
|Máire
|-
|Genitive
|an fhir mhóir
|an bhuachalla mhóir
|na mná móire
|na circe móire
|Sheáin
|Mháire
|-
|Vocative
|a fhir mhóir
|a bhuachaill mhóir
|a bhean mhór
|a chearc mhór
|a Sheáin
|a Mháire
|-
| rowspan=3, align=center |Pl.
|Nominative
|na fir móra
|na buachaillí móra
|na mná móra
|na cearca móra
|colspan=2, rowspan=3 |
|-
|Genitive
|na bhfear mór
|na mbuachaillí móra
|na mban mór
|na gcearc mór
|-
|Vocative
|a fheara móra
|a bhuachaillí móra
|a mhná móra
|a chearca móra
|-
|}>
Scottish Gaelic
In GaelicScottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
, the vocative case causes lenition
Lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...
of the initial letter of names. In addition, male names are slenderized, if possible (that is, adds an 'i' before the final consonant). Also, the word a is placed before the name unless it begins with a vowel (or f followed immediately by a vowel, which becomes silent when lenited), e.g.:
|Vocative case
|-
|Caitrìona
|a Chaitrìona
|-
|Domhnull
|a Dhòmhnaill
|-
|Màiri
|a Mhàiri
|-
|Seumas
|a Sheumais
|-
|Ùna
|Ùna
|-
|}>
The name “Hamish” is just the English spelling of “Sheumais”, and thus is actually a Gaelic vocative. Likewise, the name “Vairi” is an English spelling of “Mhàiri”.
Others
CornishCornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
has retained the vocative case, with the particle being the same as in Scottish Gaelic and Irish, "a", and causing the second state mutation in the following word. Manx
Manx language
Manx , also known as Manx Gaelic, and as the Manks language, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, historically spoken by the Manx people. Only a small minority of the Island's population is fluent in the language, but a larger minority has some knowledge of it...
has the vocative case, at least to the extent of initial lenition, as has Welsh. Breton
Breton language
Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
seems to have lost the vocative.
English
Modern EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
lacks a formal (morphological) vocative case. English commonly uses the nominative case
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
for vocative expressions, but sets them off from the rest of the sentences with pauses as interjections (rendered in writing as commas). Two common uses of the vocative case in English are the phrases "Mr. President" and "Madam Chairman".
Historically, or in poetic or rhetorical speech, the vocative role in English may also be shown by prefacing the noun or noun phrase with the English word "O". This is often seen in the King James Version of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
: for example, "O ye of little faith" (in Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
8:26). Another well-known example is the recurrent use of the vocative phrase, O (my) Best Beloved, by Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
in his Just So Stories
Just So Stories
The Just So Stories for Little Children were written by British author Rudyard Kipling. They are highly fantasised origin stories and are among Kipling's best known works.-Description:...
. This use of O may be considered a form of clitic
Clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level...
, and should not be confused with the interjection "Oh" (The Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 16 editions have prescribed writing and citation styles widely used in publishing...
, 15th edition, section 5.197). However, as the Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
points out, "O" and "Oh" were originally used interchangeably. With the advent of "Oh" as a written interjection
Interjection
In grammar, an interjection or exclamation is a word used to express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker . Filled pauses such as uh, er, um are also considered interjections...
; however, "O" is the preferred modern spelling of the vocative in English.
See also Apostrophe (figure of speech)
Apostrophe (figure of speech)
Apostrophe is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea...
.
Icelandic
The vocative case can generally not be found in IcelandicIcelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
, although a very few words retain an archaic vocative declension from Latin, such as the word Jesús, which is in vocative Jesú. This comes from Latin, as the Latin word for Jesus is simply Jesus and the vocative of that word is Jesu.
Example:
- Jesús (nominative) elskar þig.
- Jesus loves you.
- Ó Jesú (vocative), frelsari okkar.
- O Jesus, our saviour.
The native words sonur ("son") and vinur ("friend") also sometimes appear in the shoretened forms son and vin in vocative phrases. Additionally, adjectives in vocative phrases are always weakly declined, whereas elsewhere with proper nouns, they would usually be declined strongly.
- Kær vinur (strong adjective, full noun) er gulli betri.
- A dear friend is better than gold.
- Kæri vin (weak adjective, shortened noun), segðu mér nú sögu.
- Dear friend, tell me a story.
Bulgarian
Unlike the other Slavic languages, Bulgarian has entirely lost its noun declension. However, Bulgarian has preserved its vocative case.Traditional male names usually have a vocative case.
- Иван (nominative case)
- Иване (vocative case)
- Петър
- Петре
- Тодор
- Тодоре
More recent names and foreign names may have a vocative form but it is not used (Ричарде, instead of simply Ричард (Richard) sounds strange and funny).
Vocative phrases like господин министре (Mr. Minister) have almost completely given place to the corresponding common case forms, especially in official writings.
Proper nouns usually also have vocative forms, even though they are used less frequently. The following are examples of proper nouns that are frequently used in vocative:
- бог (god)
- боже ([,] God[,])
- господ (lord)
- господи ([,] Lord[,])
- Иисус, Иисус Христос (Jesus, Jesus Christ)
- Иисусе, Иисусе Христе
- другар (comrade)
- друgарю
- поп (priest)
- попе
- жаба (frog)
- жабо ([,] Frog[,])
- глупак (fool)
- глупако (you, fool!)
Vocative case forms also normally exist for female given names:
- Елена
- Елено
- Пена
- Пено
- Елица
- Елице
- Радка
- Радке
Except for the forms ending in -е, these are considered rude and are normally avoided. Exception are female kinship terms, whose vocative is always used: баба/бабо (Granny), мама/мамо (Mom), леля/лельо (aunt), сестра/сестро (sister).
Czech
In CzechCzech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
, the vocative (5. pád) differs from the nominative in masculine and feminine noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s in singular
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
.
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
!Vocative case
|-
|paní Eva (Ms Eve)
|paní Evo! (Ms Eve!)
|-
|pan profesor (Mr Professor)
|pane profesore! (Mr Professor!)
|-
|Kryštof (Christoph)
|Kryštofe! (Christoph!)
|-
|Marek (Mark)
|Marku!
|-
|knížka (book)
|knížko!
|-
|}>
In informal speech, it is usual that the male surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
(see also Czech name
Czech name
Czech names are composed of a given name and a surname. Surnames used by women differ from their male counterparts.-Given names:In the Czech Republic, names are simply known as jména or, if the context requires it, křestní jména . The singular form is jméno...
) is in nominative when addressing men, e.g. pane Novák! instead of pane Nováku! (Female surnames are adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s, thus they are the same in the nominative as well as in the vocative—see Czech declension
Czech declension
Czech declension describes the declension, or system of grammatically-determined modifications, in nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals in the Czech language. There is a system of 7 cases in Czech...
.) Teachers often address their pupils with the surname in nominative. However, such addressing can seem impolite. Using the appropriate vocative is strongly recommended in the official and written styles.
Lithuanian
In Lithuanian, all nouns have a vocative case, which is nearly always different from a nominative case (with an exception of plurals and some feminine nouns). Replacing the vocative case with the nominative, however, remains a common mistake in everyday speech. The form that a given noun takes depends on the declension and, sometimes, gender:- (i)a declension
- -as "vyras" (m): "vyre" (man, husband)
- -ias, -ys "svečias" (m), "gaidys" (m): "svety" (guest), "gaidy" (rooster)
- -is "brolis" (m): "broli" (brother)
Exceptions: nouns ending in -ėjas, such as "vėjas": "vėjau" (wind) and "siuvėjas": "siuvėjau" (sewer).
Male names belonging to this declension have an -ai ending in the vocative case: "Jonas" – "Jonai". Diminutive forms are normally used without an ending ("broliuk") (little brother), but a full form is also valid ("broliukai").
- (i)o declension
- -a "galva" (f): "galva" (head)
- -ia "vyšnia" (f): "vyšnia" (cherry)
- -i "marti" (f): "marčia/marti" (daughter-in-law)
Female names, such as Rasa, Rūta, etc., are spelled in the same way in the vocative case, but undergo a stress change. In the nominative case the last syllable needs to be stressed; in the vocative case, the second last: Ilona (nominative) – Ilona (vocative).
- ė declension
- -ė "katė" (f): "kate" (cat)
Some nouns of this declension (both proper ones and not) are also stressed differently: "aikštė": "aikšte" (square). The ending of diminutive forms is usually omitted: "sesutė": "sesut" (little sister).
- (i)u declension
- -us "sūnus" (m): "sūnau" (son)
- i declension
- -is "dantis" (m), "avis" (f): "dantie" (tooth), "avie" (sheep)
- -uo "vanduo" (m), "sesuo" (f): "vandenie" (water), "seserie" (sister)
- -ė "duktė" (f): "dukterie" (daughter)
Polish
In PolishPolish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, the vocative (wołacz) is formed as follows: Feminine nouns usually take -o, except those ending in -sia, -cia, -nia, and -dzia which take -u, and those ending in -ść which take -i. Masculine nouns generally follow the complex pattern of the locative case, with the exception of a handful of words such as Bóg → Boże ("God"), ojciec → ojcze ("father") and chłopiec → chłopcze ("boy"). Neuter nouns and all plural nouns are the same as in the nominative case
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
. Here are some examples:
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
!Vocative case
|-
| Feminine
|-
|Pani Ewa (Ms Eve)
|Pani Ewo! (Ms Eve!)
|-
|Ewusia (diminutive form of Ewa)
|Ewusiu!
|-
|ciemność (darkness)
|ciemności!
|-
|książka (book)
|książko!
|-
| Masculine
|-
|Pan profesor (Mr. Professor)
|Panie profesorze! (Mr. Professor!)
|-
|Krzysztof (Christopher)
|Krzysztofie! (Christopher!)
|-
|Krzyś (Chris)
|Krzysiu! (Chris!)
|-
|wilk (wolf)
|wilku!
|}>
The nominative is increasingly used in place of the vocative when adressing people with their proper names. In other contexts the vocative remains prevalent. It is used:
- To address an individual using his/her function, title, other attribute, family role
- Panie doktorze (Doctor!), Panie prezesie! (Chairman!)
- Przybywasz za późno, pływaku (You arrive too late, swimmer)
- synu (son), mamo (mum), tato (dad)
- After adjectives, demonstrativeDemonstrativeIn linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
pronouns, and possessive pronounPossessive pronounA possessive pronoun is a part of speech that substitutes for a noun phrase that begins with a possessive determiner . For example, in the sentence These glasses are mine, not yours, the words mine and yours are possessive pronouns and stand for my glasses and your glasses, respectively...
s- Nie rozumiesz mnie, moja droga Basiu! (You don't understand me, my dear Basia!)
- To address an individual in an offensive or condescending manner, e.g.
- Zamknij się, pajacu! ("Shut up, you buffoon!")
- Co się gapisz, idioto? ("What are you staring at, idiot!")
- Nie znasz się, baranie, to nie pisz ("Stop writing, idiot, you don't know what you're talking about!")
- Spadaj wieśniaku! ("Get lost, peasant!")
- After "Ty" (second person singular pronoun)
- Ty kłamczuchu! (You liar!)
- Set expressions, e.g.
- (O) Matko!, (O) Boże!, chłopie
The vocative is also often employed in affectionate and endearing contexts such as Kocham Cię, Krzysiu! ("I love you, Chris!") or Tęsknię za Tobą, moja Żono. ("I miss you, my wife.") In addition, the vocative form sometimes takes the place of the nominative in informal conversations, e.g. "Józiu przyszedł" instead of "Józio przyszedł" (Joe came).
Historical vocative
The historical Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
vocative has been lost in Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, and currently can only be found in certain cases of archaic expressions. Few of those expressions, mostly of religious origin, are very common in colloquial Russian: "Боже!" (Bozhe, vocative of "Бог" Bog, "God"), often also used in expression "Боже мой!" (Bozhe moy, "My God!"), and "Господи!" (Gospodi, vocative of "Господь" Gospod, "Lord"), which can also be expressed as "Господи Иисусе!" (Gospodi Iisuse!, Iisuse vocative of "Иисус" Iisus, "Jesus"), vocative is also used in prayers, e.g. "Отче наш!" (Otche nash, "Our Father!"). These expressions are used to express strong emotions (much like English "O my God!"), and are often combined ("Господи, Боже мой"). More examples of historical vocative can be found in other Biblical quotes that are sometimes used as proverbs, e.g. "Врачу, исцелися сам" (Vrachu, istselisya sam, "Physician, heal thyself", cf. nominative "врач", vrach). Vocative forms are also used in modern Church Slavonic. The patriarch and bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
are addressed as "владыко"(vladyko, hegemon, cf. nominative "владыка", vladyka). In the latter case the vocative form is often also incorrectly used as nominative to refer to bishops and the patriarchs.
Neo-vocative
In modern colloquial Russian given names and a small family of terms often take a special "shortened" form that some linguists consider to be a reemerging vocative case. This form is applied only to given names and nouns that end in -a and -я, which are optionally dropped in the vocative form: "Лен, где ты?" ("Lena, where are you?"). This is basically equivalent to "Лена, где ты?", the only difference being that the former version suggests a positive personal, emotional bond between the speaker and the person being addressed. Names ending in -я acquire a soft sign
Soft sign
The soft sign , also known as yer, is a letter of the Cyrillic script. In Old Church Slavonic, it represented a short front vowel. As with its companion, the back yer, the vowel phoneme it designated was later partly dropped and partly merged with other vowels...
in this case: "Оль!" = "Оля!" ("Olga!"). In addition to given names, this form is often used with words like "мама" (mama, mom) and "папа" (papa, dad), which would be respectively "shortened" to "мам" (mam) and "пап" (pap). In plural this form is used with words such as "ребят", "девчат" (nomenative: "ребята" "девчата", guys gals).
Such usage differs from historical vocative (which would be "Leno" in the example above) and is not related to such historical usage.
Slovak
Until the end of the 1980s, the existence of a distinct vocative case in the Slovak languageSlovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
was recognised and taught at schools. Today the case is considered lost from the language, with only a few archaic examples of the original vocative remaining in religious, literary or ironic context, such as
- Boh (God) m.: Bože
- Kristus (Christ) m.: Kriste
- pán (lord) m.: pane
- otec (father) m.: otče
- človek (man, human) m.: človeče
- chlap (man) m.: chlape
- chlapec (boy) m.: chlapče'
- Ježiš (Jesus) m.: Ježišu
- priateľ (friend) m.: priateľu
- brat (brother) m.: bratu, bratku
- syn (son) m.: synu, synku
- mama (mother) f.: mamo
- žena (woman) f.: ženo
In everyday use, the Czech vocative is sometimes retrofitted to certain words, such as
- majster (maestro) m.: majstre
- šéf (boss) m.: šéfe
- švagor (brother-in-law) m.: švagre
Another stamp of vernacular vocative is emerging, presumably under the influence of the Hungarian language
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
for certain family members or proper names, such as
- otec (father) m.: oci
- mama (mother) f.: mami
- babka (grandmother, old woman) f.: babi
- Paľo (Paul, domestic form) m.: Pali
- Zuza (Susan, domestic form) f.: Zuzi
Ukrainian
UkrainianUkrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
has retained the vocative case, in contrast to the other, closely related East Slavic languages
East Slavic languages
The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of Slavic languages, currently spoken in Eastern Europe. It is the group with the largest numbers of speakers, far out-numbering the Western and Southern Slavic groups. Current East Slavic languages are Belarusian, Russian,...
, Belarusian
Belarusian language
The Belarusian language , sometimes referred to as White Russian or White Ruthenian, is the language of the Belarusian people...
and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
. See Ukrainian grammar#Morphology for details.
Latin
In LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
the form of the vocative case of a noun is the same as the nominative
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
, except for singular second-declension nouns that end in -us in the nominative case. An example would be the famous line from Shakespeare, "Et tu, Brute?" (commonly translated as "And you, Brutus?"), where Brute is the vocative case and Brutus would be the nominative case
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
.
Nouns ending in -ius have distinct vocatives, but instead of the expected ending -ie they simply end with -ī. Thus, Julius becomes Julī and filius becomes filī. This shortening does not shift the accent, so the vocative of Vergilius is Vergilī, with accent on the first i, even though it is short. Nouns ending in -aius and -eius have vocatives ending in -aī or -eī even though the i is consonantal in the stem.
First and second declension adjectives also have distinct vocative forms in the masculine singular whenever the nominative ends in -us, with the ending -e. Adjectives ending in -ius have vocatives in -ie; thus the vocative of eximius is eximie.
Nouns and adjectives ending in -eus do not follow the rules above. Meus forms the vocative irregularly as mī, while deus does not have a distinct vocative, and retains the form deus. "My God!" in Latin is thus mī deus!, though Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
's Vulgate
Vulgate
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
consistently (and in deviation from classical use) uses deus meus as a vocative.
Romanian
The vocative case in RomanianRomanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
is inherited from Latin. Morphologically it is built using specific endings, occasionally causing other morphophonemic changes (see also the article on Romanian nouns
Romanian nouns
This article on Romanian nouns is related to the Romanian grammar and belongs to a series of articles on the Romanian language. It describes the morphology of the noun in this language, and includes details about its declension according to number, case, and application of the definite article, all...
):
- singular masculine/neuter: "-e" as in
- "om": "omule!" (man, human being),
- "băiat": "băiete!" or "băiatule!" (boy),
- "văr": "vere!" (cousin),
- "Ion": "Ioane!" (John);
- singular feminine: "-o" as in
- "soră": "soro!" (sister),
- "nebună": "nebuno!" (mad woman),
- "deşteaptă": "deşteapto!" (smart one (f), but this vocative is always used sarcastically),
- "Ileana": "Ileano!" (Helen);
- plural, all genders: "-lor" as in
- "fraţi": "fraţilor!" (brothers),
- "boi": "boilor!" (oxen, used toward people as an invective),
- "doamne şi domni": "doamnelor şi domnilor!" (ladies and lords).
Often in formal speech the vocative simply copies the nominative/accusative form, even when it does have its own. This happens because the vocative is often perceived as very direct and thus can seem rude.
Venetian
The vocative case in VenetianVenetian language
Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken as a native language by over two million people, mostly in the Veneto region of Italy, where of five million inhabitants almost all can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and often well understood outside Veneto, in Trentino, Friuli, Venezia...
is not marked by any ending, since Venetian has lost case endings as most Romance languages, but it is still visible on feminine proper names due to the absence of the determiner; i.e. the personal article Ła / L' which usually precedes feminine names in other cases, even in predicates. Thus, vocative case is distinguished from both nominative and accusative cases although none of them bears endings nor prepositions. On the contrary, masculine names and other nouns only rely on intonation and voice breaks.
| Case | Fem. proper name | Masc. proper name and other nouns |
|---|---|---|
| Nom./Acc. | ła Marìa ła vien qua / varda ła Marìa! Mary comes here / look at Mary! |
Marco el vien qua / varda Marco! Mark comes here / look at Mark! |
| Vocative | Marìa vien qua! / varda Marìa! Mary come here! / look, Mary! |
Marco vien qua! / varda, Marco! Mark come here! / look, Mark! |
The (presence/absence of the) personal article in feminine proper names also distinguishes the vocative case from predicates, differently from the definite article ła of common nouns which is dropped even in predicative constructions.
| Case | Fem. proper name | Masc. proper name and other nouns |
|---|---|---|
| Pred. | so' mi ła Marìa I am Mary |
so' mi Marco / so' tornà maestra I am Mark / I am a teacher again |
| Vocative | so' mi Marìa! It's me, Mary! |
so' mi, Marco! / so' tornà, maestra! it's me, Mark! / I am back, teacher! |
In some vernacular German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, where it is common to use the (gender-)appropriate article before a person's name, the article is, as in Venetian, omitted when calling the person.
Kurdish
KurdishKurdish language
Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....
does have a vocative case. For instance, in the Kurdish dialect of Kurmanji
Kurmanji
Kurmanji or Northern Kurdish is the most commonly spoken dialect of the Kurdish language.- Scripts and books :...
, this case is created by adding the suffix of -o at the end of masculine
Masculine
Masculine or masculinity, normally refer to qualities positively associated with men.Masculine may also refer to:*Masculine , a grammatical gender*Masculine cadence, a final chord occurring on a strong beat in music...
words and the -ê suffix at the end of feminine
Feminine
Feminine, or femininity, normally refers to qualities positively associated with women.Feminine may also refer to:*Feminine , a grammatical gender*Feminine cadence, a final chord falling in a metrically weak position...
ones.
Examples:
!Kurdish vocative
|-
| Abdullah (m)
| Apo
|-
| Mostafa (m)
| Misto
|-
| Mahmud (f)
| Maho
|-
| Sayyid (m)
| Saydo
|-
| Zaynab (f)
| Zaynê
|-
| Fatima (f)
| Fattê
|}>
It is also possible to create the vocative without using the inflection suffix by using separate words. For this, Lê (feminine) and Lo (masculine) is used.
Examples:
! Vocative
|-
| Azad (m)
| Lo Azad!
|-
| Diyar (f)
| Lo Diyar!
|}>
Generally, Kurdish female names are ending with the -ê suffix, and male names with -o. Examples are Nazê, Gulê, Derdo, Şemo, Aso, Memo.
Arabic
Properly speaking, ArabicArabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
only has three cases, the nominative, accusative and genitive. However, a meaning similar to that conveyed by the vocative case in other languages is indicated by the use of the particle ya placed before a noun. In English translations, this is often translated literally as O instead of being omitted.
Cantonese
Most people have first names with two characters. First names (or, more commonly, one of the characters of the first names) would be preceded by Ah in casual situations in an affectionate manner.Georgian
In GeorgianGeorgian language
Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 4 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad...
, the vocative case is used for addressing the second singular and plural persons. For the word roots ending with a consonant, the vocative case suffix is -o, and for the words ending with a vowel, there is no suffix for the vocative case (the suffix used to be -v in old Georgian, but is now considered archaic). For example, kats- is the root for the word "man." If one addresses someone with this word, it becomes, katso!
Adjectives are also declined in the vocative case. Just like nouns, consonant final stem adjectives take the suffix -o in the vocative case, and the vowel final stems are not changed. Compare:
- lamazi kali "beautiful woman" (nominative case)
- lamazo kalo! "beautiful woman!" (vocative case)
In the second phrase, both the adjective and the noun are declined. The second singular and plural personal pronouns are also declined in the vocative case. Shen you(singular) and tkven you (plural) in the vocative case become, she! and tkve!, with the drop of the final -n. Therefore one could, for instance, say,
She lamazo kalo! "you beautiful woman!"
with the declination of all the elements.
Japanese
The vocative case in Japanese is formed with null morpheme, i.e. without any specific particle. Examples:- 田中さんは部長を訪問してくださる (Mr. Tanaka shall visit the boss)
- 田中さん、 部長を訪問してください (Mr. Tanaka, [please] visit the boss)
The particle は marks the subject of the first sentence, i.e. it is the nominative case marker; the particle を marks the object, i.e. it is the accusative case marker.
In the second sentence, there is no particle following 田中さん thus making it vocative.
Note that particles は and が are also frequently omitted in colloquial speech without making a word vocative. Example: 田中さん部長を訪問 Mr. Tanaka visits the boss.
In archaic Japanese, or when written as verse
Verse (poetry)
A verse is formally a single line in a metrical composition, e.g. poetry. However, the word has come to represent any division or grouping of words in such a composition, which traditionally had been referred to as a stanza....
, a particle よ and や may be affixed.
- 少年よ、大志を抱け (Boys, be ambitious, quote by William S. ClarkWilliam S. ClarkWilliam Smith Clark was a professor of chemistry, botany and zoology, a colonel during the American Civil War, and a leader in agricultural education. Raised and schooled in Easthampton, Massachusetts, Clark spent most of his adult life in Amherst, Massachusetts...
)
- 神よ、汝の誉れはその御名のごとく (O God, Thy praise is according to Thine name, from Bach's cantataGott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm, BWV 171Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm , BWV 171, is a church cantata of Johann Sebastian Bach, written for New Year's Day, probably first performed on 1 January 1729.-Scoring, words and structure:...
)
- じいさまや、山さ雨は降っただけ (Old man, was it raining on the mountain?)
Korean
The vocative case in KoreanKorean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
is commonly used with first names in casual situations. This is done by suffixing 아 (a) if the name ends in a consonant and 야 (ya) if in a vowel:
미진은 집에 가겠어? (Mijin-eun chibe kagesseo?)
"Is Mijin going home?"
미진아, 집에 가겠어? (Mijin-a, chibe kagesseo?)
"Mijin, are you going home?
동배 뭐 해? (Dongbae meo hae?)
What is Dongbae doing?
동배야, 뭐 해? (Dongbae-ya, meo hae?)
"Dongbae, what are you doing?
In formal and somewhat archaic Korean, words are suffixed with 여 (yeo) if ending in a vowel and 이여 (iyeo) if ending in a consonant. The use of these suffixes is similar to that of the Japanese よ. Thus, 少年よ、大志を抱け (Boys, be ambitious, quote by William S. Clark) would be translated as
청년들이여 대망을 가져라. (Cheongnyeondeul-iyeo, taemangeul kajyeora.)
Boys, be ambitious.
Turkish
There are officially only five cases in the Turkish language. All the cases are created by unique suffix. These cases are the nominative, accusative (suffix -i), dative (suffix -e), locative (suffix -de), and ablative (suffix -den). As nouns, adjectives and adverbs are not inflected at all, the cases have not the importance that is given to them in some Indo-European languages. The genitive is not considered a case at all, although it is frequently used. The existence of something like the vocative case is oblivious to people, although a case coming from Arabic is used in archaic (often religious) or cynical cases. Examples:- Ey iman edenler!
- O ye who believe!
- Ey aptal!
- O you stupid!