Vocative case

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Look up vocative in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated VOC) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals) of that noun; the comma that should be applied in such a context is referred to as a vocative comma.^[1][2] The usage of vocative case in the English language (and many others where commas are used) necessitates a comma to help clarify the writer's intent; failure to strictly adhere to this rule can lead to confusion over the writer's intent. A vocative expression is an expression of direct address by which the identity of the party spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence. For example, in the sentence "I don't know, John," John is a vocative expression that indicates the party being addressed, as opposed to the sentence "I don't know John" in which "John" is the direct object of the verb "know". In simple terms, the first sentence is the speaker telling a person called John that they do not know something, while the second sentence is the speaker saying that they do not know who John is. A well-known humorous example is "Let's eat, Grandma" and "Let's eat Grandma",^[3] where the former example is the speaker telling their grandma to eat something, while the latter example is the speaker asking a third party to join them in cannibalizing their grandmother.

Historically, the vocative case was an element of the Indo-European case system and existed in Latin, Sanskrit and Greek. Many modern Indo-European languages (English, Spanish, etc.) have lost the vocative case, but others retain it, including the Baltic languages, some Celtic languages and most Slavic languages. Some linguists, such as Albert Thumb,^(de) argue that the vocative form is not a case but a special form of nouns not belonging to any case, as vocative expressions are not related syntactically to other words in sentences.^[4] Pronouns usually lack vocative forms.

Indo-European languages

Comparison

Distinct vocative forms are assumed to have existed in all early Indo-European languages and survive in some. Here is, for example, the Indo-European word for "wolf" in various languages:

Language	Nominative	Vocative
Proto-Indo-European	*wl̩kʷ-o-s	*wl̩kʷ-e
Sanskrit	वृकः (vṛ́k-a-ḥ)	वृक (vṛ́k-a)
Classical Greek	λύκ-ο-ς (lúk-o-s)	λύκ-ε (lúk-e)
Latin	lup-u-s	lup-e
Lithuanian	vilk-a-s	vilk-e
Old Church Slavonic	вльк-ъ (vlĭk-ŭ)	вльч-е (vlĭč-e)

The elements separated with hyphens denote the stem, the so-called thematic vowel of the case and the actual suffix. In Latin, for example, the nominative case is lupus and the vocative case is lupe, but the accusative case is lupum. The asterisks before the Proto-Indo-European words means that they are theoretical reconstructions and are not attested in a written source. The symbol ◌̩ (vertical line 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 on some systems from issues of font display). All final consonants were lost in Proto-Slavic, so both the nominative and vocative Old Church Slavonic forms do not have true endings, only reflexes of the old thematic vowels.

The vocative ending changes the stem consonant in Old Church Slavonic because of the so-called First Palatalization. Most modern Slavic languages that retain the vocative case have altered the ending to avoid the change: Bulgarian вълко occurs far more frequently than вълче.

Baltic languages

Lithuanian

The vocative is distinct in singular and identical to the nominative in the plural, for all inflected nouns. Nouns with a nominative singular ending in -a have a vocative singular usually identically written but distinct in accentuation.

In Lithuanian, the form that a given noun takes depends on its declension class and, sometimes, on its gender. There have been several changes in history, the last being the -ai ending formed between the 18th and 19th centuries. The older forms are listed under "other forms".

Masculine nouns	Nominative	Vocative		Translation	Feminine nouns	Nominative	Vocative		Translation
		Current standard	Other forms				Current standard	Other forms
o-stems	vilkas	vilke!		wolf	a-stems	tautà [sg.]	taũta!		people
jo-stems	vėjas	vėjau!	Old. Lith. vėje!	wind	e-stems	katė	kate!		cat
ijo-stems	gaidys	gaidy!		rooster	i-stems	avis	avie!		sheep
a-stems	viršilà	viršìla!		sergeant-major	r-stems	duktė	dukterie!	dukter!	daughter
e-stems	dėdė	dėde!		uncle	irregular	marti	marti/marčia!		daughter-in-law
i-stems	vagis	vagie!		thief	proper names	Dalià	Dãlia!
u-stems	sūnus	sūnau!		son	diminutives	sesutė	sesut(e)!		little sister
n-stems	vanduo	vandenie!	vanden!	water
proper names	Jonas	Jonai!	Old Lith. Jone!	John
diminutives	sūnelis	sūneli!		little son

Some nouns of the e- and a- stems declensions (both proper ones and not) are stressed differently: "aikštė": "aikšte!" (square); "tauta": "tauta!". In addition, nouns of e-stems have an ablaut of long vowel ė in nominative and short vowel e /ɛ/ in vocative. In pronunciation, ė is close-mid vowel [eː], and e is open-mid vowel /ɛ/.

The vocative of diminutive nouns with the suffix -(i)ukas most frequently has no ending: broliùk "brother!", etc. A less frequent alternative is the ending -ai, which is also slightly dialectal: broliùkai, etc.

Colloquially, some personal names with a masculine -(i)(j)o stem and diminutives with the suffixes -elis, -ėlis have an alternative vocative singular form characterized by a zero ending (i.e. the stem alone acts as the voc. sg.): Adõm "Adam!" in addition to Adõmai, Mýkol "Michael!" in addition to Mýkolai, vaikẽl "kid!" in addition to vaikẽli, etc.

Celtic languages

Goidelic languages

Irish

The vocative case in Irish 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 that end 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, again, for first declension nouns. In the standard language first declension nouns show the vocative plural by adding -a. In the spoken dialects the vocative plural is often has the same form as the nominative plural (as with the nouns of other declensions) or the dative plural (e.g. a fhearaibh! = Men!)

Gender		Masculine			Feminine
Sg.	Nominative	an fear mór	an buachaill mór	Seán	an bhean mhór	an deirfiúr mhór	Máire
	Genitive	an fhir mhóir	an bhuachalla mhóir	Sheáin	na mná móire	na deirféar móire	Mháire
	Vocative	a fhir mhóir	a bhuachaill mhóir	a Sheáin	a bhean mhór	a dheirfiúr mhór	a Mháire
Pl.	Nominative	na fir móra	na buachaillí móra		na mná móra	na deirfiúracha móra
	Genitive	na bhfear mór	na mbuachaillí móra		na mban mór	na ndeirfiúracha móra
	Vocative	a fheara móra	a bhuachaillí móra		a mhná móra	a dheirfiúracha móra
English		the big man	the big boy	John	the big woman	the big sister	Mary

Scottish Gaelic

The vocative case in Scottish Gaelic follows the same basic pattern as Irish. The vocative case causes lenition of the initial consonant of nouns. Lenition changes the initial sound of the word (or name).

In addition, masculine nouns are slenderized if possible (that is, in writing, an 'i' is inserted before the final consonant) This also changes the pronunciation of the word.

Also, the particle a is placed before the noun unless it begins with a vowel (or f followed immediately by a vowel, which becomes silent when lenited). Examples of the use of the vocative personal names (as in Irish):

Nominative case	Vocative case
Caitrìona	a Chaitrìona
Dòmhnall	a Dhòmhnaill
Màiri	a Mhàiri
Seumas	a Sheumais
Ùna	Ùna
cù	a choin
bean	a bhean
duine	a dhuine

The name "Hamish" is just the English spelling of "Sheumais" (the vocative of "Seumas" and pronounced "Hamish"), and thus is actually a Gaelic vocative. Likewise, the name "Vairi" is an English spelling of "Mhàiri," the vocative for Màiri.

Manx

The basic pattern is similar to Irish and Scottish. The vocative is confined to personal names, in which it is common. Foreign names (not of Manx origin) are not used in the vocative. The vocative case causes lenition of the initial consonant of names. It can be used with the particle "y".

Nominative case	Vocative case
Juan	y Yuan
Donal	y Ghonal
Moirrey	y Voirrey
Catreeney	y Chatreeney
John	John

The name "Voirrey" is actually the Manx vocative of "Moirrey" (Mary).

Brythonic languages

Welsh

 

Sign at Aberystwyth University in Welsh displaying use of the vocative case – 'myfyrwyr' (students) mutated to 'fyfyrwyr'

Welsh lacks case declension but marks vocative constructions by lenition of the initial consonant of the word, with no obligatory particle. Despite its use being less common, it is still used in formal address: the common phrase foneddigion a boneddigesau means "gentlemen and ladies", with the initial consonant of boneddigion undergoing a soft mutation; the same is true of gyfeillion ("[dear] friends") in which cyfeillion has been lenited. It is often used to draw attention to at public notices orally and written – teachers will say "Blant" (mutation of "children") and signage such as one right show mutation of "myfyrwyr" (students) to draw attention to the importance of the notice.

Germanic languages

English

See also: Apostrophe (figure of speech)

 

Look up O#Particle in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The vocative case in modern English is not generally used in regular communication. Vocative case in English is marked by the particle "O" preceding the noun; this is often used in English translations of languages that do have the vocative case. It is often seen in the King James Version of the Bible: "O ye of little faith" (in Matthew 8:26). While it is not strictly archaic, it is sometimes used to "archaeise" speech; it is often seen as very formal, and sees use in rhetoric and poetry, or as a comedic device to subvert modern speech. Another example is the recurrent use of the phrase "O (my) Best Beloved" by Rudyard Kipling in his Just So Stories. The use of O may be considered a form of clitic and should not be confused with the interjection oh.^[5] 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 in vocative phrases.^{[citation needed]}

Modern English commonly uses the objective 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 examples of vocative expressions in English are the phrases "Mr. President" and "Madam Chairwoman".

Some traditional texts use Jesu, the Latin vocative form of Jesus. One of the best-known examples is Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.

German dialects

In some German dialects, like the Ripuarian dialect of Cologne, it is common to use the (gender-appropriate) article before a person's name. In the vocative phrase then the article is, as in Venetian and Catalan, omitted. Thus, the determiner precedes nouns in all cases except the vocative. Any noun not preceded by an article or other determiner is in the vocative case. It is most often used to address someone or some group of living beings, usually in conjunction with an imperative construct. It can also be used to address dead matter as if the matter could react or to tell something astonishing or just happening such as "Your nose is dripping."

Colognian examples:

Do es der Päul — Päul, kumm ens erövver!	There is Paul. Paul, come over [please]!
Och do leeven Kaffepott, do bes jo am dröppe!	O [my] dear coffee pot, you are dripping!
„Pääde, jooht loufe!“ Un di Pääde jonn loufe.	"Horses, run away!" And the horses are running away.

Icelandic

The vocative case generally does not appear in Icelandic, but a few words retain an archaic vocative declension from Latin, such as the word Jesús, which is Jesú in the vocative. That comes from Latin, as the Latin for Jesus in the nominative is Jesus and its vocative is Jesu. That is also the case in traditional English (without the accent) (see above):

 

Look up ó#Icelandic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Nominative	Jesús elskar þig.	Jesus loves you.
Vocative	Ó Jesú, frelsari okkar.	O Jesus, our saviour.

The native words sonur ("son") and vinur ("friend") also sometimes appear in the shortened forms son and vin in vocative phrases. Additionally, adjectives in vocative phrases are always weakly declined, but elsewhere with proper nouns, they would usually be declined strongly:

Kær vinur er gulli betri.	A dear friend is better than gold.	strong adjective, full noun
Kæri vin, segðu mér nú sögu.	Dear friend, tell me a story.	weak adjective, shortened noun

Norwegian

Nouns in Norwegian are not inflected for the vocative case, but adjectives qualifying those nouns are; adjectival adjuncts modifying vocative nouns are inflected for the definite (see: Norwegian language#Adjectives).^{[6]: 223–224} The definite and plural inflections are in most cases identical, so it is more easily observable with adjectives that inflect for plural and definite differently, e.g. liten being lille when definite, but små when plural, an instance of suppletion.^[6]: 116

Non-vocative	Vocative	English translation
kjær venn	kjære venn	dear friend
vis mann	vise mann	wise man
liten katt	lille katt	little cat

In several Norwegian dialects, north of an isogloss running from Oslo to Bergen, names in argument position are associated with proprial articles, e.g. gendered pronouns such as han ('he') or hun ('she'), which either precede or follow the noun in question.^[7] This is not the case when in vocative constructions.^[8]

Greek

In Ancient Greek, the vocative case is usually identical to the nominative case, with the exception of masculine second-declension nouns (ending in -ος) and third-declension nouns.

Second-declension masculine nouns have a regular vocative ending in -ε. Third-declension nouns with one syllable ending in -ς have a vocative that is identical to the nominative (νύξ, night); otherwise, the stem (with necessary alterations, such as dropping final consonants) serves as the vocative (nom. πόλις, voc. πόλι; nom. σῶμα, gen. σώματος, voc. σῶμα). Irregular vocatives exist as well, such as nom. Σωκράτης, voc. Σώκρατες.

In Modern Greek, second-declension masculine nouns still have a vocative ending in -ε. However, the accusative case is often used as a vocative in informal speech for a limited number of nouns, and always used for certain modern Greek person names: "Έλα εδώ, Χρήστο" "Come here, Christos" instead of "...Χρήστε". Other nominal declensions use the same form in the vocative as the accusative in formal or informal speech, with the exception of learned Katharevousa forms that are inherited from Ancient Greek Ἕλλην (Demotic Έλληνας, "Greek man"), which have the same nominative and vocative forms instead.^[9]

Iranian languages

Kurdish

Kurdish has a vocative case. For instance, in the dialect of Kurmanji, it is created by adding the suffix -o at the end of masculine words and the -ê suffix at the end of feminine ones. In the Jafi dialect of Sorani it is created by adding the suffix of -i at the end of names.

Kurmanji		Jafi
Name	Vocative	Name	Vocative
Sedad (m)	Sedo	Bêstûn	Bêsi
Wedad (m)	Wedo	Reşîd	Reşo
Baran (m)	Baro	Sûret	Sûri
Nazdar (f)	Nazê	Fatime	Fati
Gulistan (f)	Gulê	Firset	Firsi
Berfîn (f)	Berfê	Nesret	Nesi

Instead of the vocative case, forms of address may be created by using the grammatical particles lê (feminine) and lo (masculine):

Name	Vocative
Nazdar(f)	Lê Nazê!
Diyar (m)	Lo Diyar!

Indo-Aryan languages

Hindi-Urdu

In Hindi-Urdu (Hindustani), the vocative case has same form as the nominative case for all singular nouns except for the singular masculine nouns that terminate in the vowel आ /a:/ (ā) and for all nouns in their plural forms the vocative case is always distinct from the nominative case.^[10] Adjectives in Hindi-Urdu also have a vocative case form. In the absence of a noun argument, some adjectives decline like masculine nouns that do not end in आ /a:/ (ā).^[11] The vocative case has many similarities with the oblique case in Hindustani.

Noun Classes Singular Plural English Nominative Vocative Nominative Vocative Masculine ending in आ (ā) लड़का लड़का lar̥kā लड़के लड़के lar̥ke लड़कों लड़कों lar̥kõ boy not ending in आ (ā) इंसान insān इंसान insān इंसानों insānõ इंसानों insānõ human Feminine ending in ई (ī) लड़की lar̥kī लड़की lar̥kī लड़कियाँ lar̥kiyā̃ लड़कियाँ lar̥kiyā̃ लड़कियों lar̥kiyõ लड़कियों lar̥kiyõ girl not ending in ई (ī) माता mātā माता mātā माताएँ mātāẽ माताएँ mātāẽ माताओं mātāõ माताओं mātāõ mother चिड़िया चिड़िया cir̥iyā चिड़ियाँ चिड़ियाँ cir̥iyā̃ चिड़ियों चिड़ियों cir̥iyõ bird

Adjective Classes Singular Plural English Nominative Vocative Nominative Vocative Declinable masculine बुरा बुरा burā बुरे bure बुरे bure bad feminine बुरी burī बुरी burī Undeclinable (not ending in -ā or -ī in nominative singular) masculine with noun बेवकूफ़ bevakūf बेवकूफ़ bevakūf fool feminine masculine sans noun बेवकूफ़ bevakūf बेवकूफ़ bevakūf बेवकूफ़ों बेवकूफ़ों bevakūfõ feminine

Sanskrit

In Sanskrit, the vocative (सम्बोधन विभक्ति sambodhana vibhakti) has the same form as the nominative except in the singular. In vowel-stem nouns, if there is a –ḥ in the nominative, it is omitted and the stem vowel may be altered: –ā and –ĭ become –e, –ŭ becomes –o, –ī and –ū become short and –ṛ becomes –ar. Consonant-stem nouns have no ending in the vocative:

Noun	Singular	Dual	Plural
बाल (bāla, masc., 'boy')	हे बाल he bāla	हे बालौ he bālau	हे बालाः he bālāḥ
लता (latā, fem., 'creeper')	हे लते he late	हे लते he late	हे लताः he latāḥ
फलम् (phalam, neut., 'fruit')	हे फलम् he phalam	हे फले he phale	हे फलानि he phalāni

The vocative form is the same as the nominative except in the masculine and feminine singular.

Slavic languages

Old Church Slavonic

Old Church Slavonic has a distinct vocative case for many stems of singular masculine and feminine nouns, otherwise it is identical to the nominative. When different from the nominative, the vocative is simply formed from the nominative by appending either -e (rabъ: rabe "slave") or -o (ryba: rybo "fish"), but occasionally -u (krai: kraju "border", synъ: synu "son", vračь: vraču "physician") and -i (kostь: kosti "bone", gostь:gosti "guest", dьnь: dьni "day", kamy: kameni "stone") appear. Nouns ending with -ьcь have a vocative ending of -če (otьcь: otьče "father", kupьcь: kupьče "merchant"), likewise nouns ending with -dzь assume the vocative suffix -že (kъnědzь: kъněže "prince"). This is similar to Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, and Sanskrit, which also employ the -e suffix in vocatives.^[12][13]

Bulgarian

Unlike most other Slavic languages, Bulgarian has lost case marking for nouns. However, Bulgarian preserves vocative forms. Traditional male names usually have a vocative ending.

Nominative	Vocative
Петър Petar	Петре Petre
Тодор Todor	Тодоре Todore
Иван Ivan	Иване Ivane

More-recent names and foreign names may have a vocative form but it is rarely used (Ричарде, instead of simply Ричард Richard, sounds unusual or humorous to native speakers).

Vocative phrases like господине министре (Mr. Minister) have been almost completely replaced by nominative forms, especially in official writing. Proper nouns usually also have vocative forms, but they are used less frequently. Here are some proper nouns that are frequently used in vocative:

English word	Nominative	Vocative
God	Бог Bog	Боже Bozhe
Lord	Господ Gospod	Господи Gospodi
Jesus Christ	Исус Христос Isus Hristos	Исусе Христе Isuse Hriste
comrade	другар drugar	другарю drugaryu
priest	поп pop	попе pope
frog	жаба zhaba	жабо zhabo
fool	глупак glupak	глупако glupako

Vocative case forms also normally exist for female given names:

Nominative	Vocative
Елена Elena	Елено Eleno
Пена Pena	Пено Peno
Елица Elitsa	Елице Elitse
Радка Radka	Радке Radke

Except for forms that end in -е, they are considered rude and are normally avoided. For female kinship terms, the vocative is always used:

English word	Nominative	Vocative
Grandmother	Баба Baba	Бабо Babo
Mom	Майка Mayka Мама Mama	Майко Mayko Мамо Mamo
Aunt	Леля Lelya	Лельо Lelyo
Sister	Сестра Sestra	Сестро Sestro

Czech

In Czech, the vocative (vokativ, or 5. pád – "the fifth case") usually differs from the nominative in masculine and feminine nouns in the singular.

Nominative case	Vocative case
Feminine
paní Eva (Ms Eve)	paní Evo!
knížka (little book)	knížko!
Marie (Mary)	Marie!
nová píseň (new song)	nová písni!
Masculine
pan profesor (Mr Professor)	pane profesore!
Ježíš (Jesus)	Ježíši!
Marek (Mark)	Marku!
předseda (chairman)	předsedo!
pan žalobce (Mr complainant)	pane žalobce!
blbec (dunce)	blbče!
Jiří (George)	Jiří!
pan Dobrý (Mr Good)	pane Dobrý!
Neuter
moje rodné město (my native city)	moje rodné město!
jitřní moře (morning sea)	jitřní moře!
otcovo obydlí (father's dwelling)	otcovo obydlí!

In older common Czech (19th century), vocative form was sometimes replaced by nominative form in case of female names ("Lojzka, dej pokoj!") and in case of male nouns past a title ("pane učitel!", "pane továrník!", "pane Novák!"). This phenomenon was caused mainly by the German influence,^[14] and almost disappeared from the modern Czech. It can be felt as rude, discourteous or uncultivated, or as familiar, and is associated also with Slovakian influence (from the Czechoslovak Army) or Russian.^[15] In informal speech, it is common (but grammatically incorrect^[16]) to use the male surname (see also Czech name) in the nominative to address men: pane Novák! instead of pane Nováku! (Female surnames are adjectives, and their nominative and vocative have the same form: see Czech declension.) Using the vocative is strongly recommended in official and written styles.

Polish

In Polish, the vocative (wołacz) is formed with feminine nouns usually taking -o except those that end in -sia, -cia, -nia, and -dzia, which take -u, and those that end 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 have the same form in the nominative and the vocative:

Nominative case	Vocative case
Feminine
Pani Ewa (Mrs. Eve)	Pani Ewo! (Mrs. 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!
człowiek (human)	człowieku! / człowiecze! (poet.)

The latter form of the vocative of człowiek (human) is now considered poetical.

The nominative is increasingly used instead of the vocative to address people with their proper names. In other contexts the vocative remains prevalent. It is used:

• To address an individual with the 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, demonstrative pronouns and possessive pronouns
  • Nie rozumiesz mnie, moja droga Basiu! (You don't understand me, my dear Basia!)
• To address an individual in an offensive or condescending manner:
  • 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:
  • (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: Józiu przyszedł instead of "Józio przyszedł" ("Joey's arrived"). When referring to someone by their first name, the nominative commonly takes the place of the vocative as well: Ania, chodź tu! instead of Aniu, chodź tu! ("Anne, come here!").

Russian

Historic vocative

The historic Slavic vocative has been lost in Russian and is now used only in archaic expressions. Several of them, mostly of Old Church Slavonic origin, are common in colloquial Russian: "Боже!" (Bože, vocative of "Бог" Bog, "God") and "Боже мой!" (Bože moj, "My God!"), and "Господи!" (Gospodi, vocative of "Господь" Gospodj, "Lord"), which can also be expressed as "Господи Иисусе!" (Gospodi Iisuse!, Iisuse vocative of "Иисус" Iisus, "Jesus"). The vocative is also used in prayers: "Отче наш!" (Otče naš, "Our Father!"). Such expressions are used to express strong emotions (much like English "O my God!"), and are often combined ("Господи, Боже мой"). More examples of the historic vocative can be found in other Biblical quotes that are sometimes used as proverbs: "Врачу, исцелися сам" (Vraču, iscelisia sam, "Physician, heal thyself", nom. "врач", vrač). Vocative forms are also used in modern Church Slavonic. The patriarch and bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church are addressed as "владыко" (vladyko, hegemon, nom. "владыка", vladyka). In the latter case, the vocative is often also incorrectly used for the nominative to refer to bishops and patriarchs.

New 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 re-emerging vocative case.^[17] It is used only for given names and nouns that end in -a and -я, which are sometimes dropped in the vocative form: "Лен, где ты?" ("Lena, where are you?"). It is basically equivalent to "Лена, где ты?" but suggests a positive personal and emotional bond between the speaker and the person being addressed. Names that end in -я then acquire a soft sign: "Оль!" = "Оля!" ("Olga!"). In addition to given names, the form is often used with words like "мама" (mom) and "папа" (dad), which would be respectively shortened to "мам" and "пап". The plural form is used with words such as "ребят", "девчат" (nom: "ребята", "девчата" guys, gals).^[18]

Such usage differs from the historic vocative, which would be "Лено" and is not related.

Serbo-Croatian

Distinct vocatives exist only for singular masculine and feminine nouns. Nouns of the neuter gender and all nouns in plural have a vocative equal to the nominative. All vocative suffixes known from Old Church Slavonic also exist in Serbo-Croatian.^[19]

The vocative in Serbo-Croatian is formed according to one of three types of declension, which are classes of nouns having equal declension suffixes.^[20]

First declension

The first declension comprises masculine nouns that end with a consonant. These have a vocative suffix of either -e (doktor: doktore "doctor") or -u (gospodar: gospodaru "master").

Nouns terminating in -or have the -e vocative suffix: (doktor: doktore "doctor", major: majore "major", majstor: majstore "artisan") also nouns possessing an unsteady a (vetar: vetre "wind", svekar: svekre "father-in-law") and the noun car: care "emperor". All other nouns in this class form the vocative with -u: gospodar: gospodaru "master", pastir: pastiru "shepherd", inženjer: inženjeru "engineer", pisar: pisaru "scribe", sekretar: sekretaru "secretary".

In particular, masculine nouns ending with a palatal or prepalatal consonant j, lj, nj, č. dž. ć, đ. š form vocatives with the -u suffix: heroj: heroju "hero", prijatelj: prijatelju "friend", konj: konju "horse", vozač: vozaču "driver", mladić: mladiću "youngster", kočijaš: kočijašu "coachman", muž: mužu "husband".

Nouns ending with the velars -k, -g and -h are palatalized to -č, -ž, -š in the vocative: vojnik: vojniče "soldier", drug: druže "comrade", duh: duše "ghost". A final -c becomes -č in the vocative: stric: striče "uncle", lovac: lovče "hunter". Likewise, a final -z becomes -ž in only two cases: knez: kneže "prince" and vitez: viteže "knight".

The loss of the unsteady a can trigger a sound change by hardening of consonants, as in vrabac: vrapče "sparrow" (not vrabče), lisac: lišče "male fox" (not lisče) and ženomrzac: ženomršče "misogynist" (not ženomrzče). There may be a loss of -t before -c like in otac: oče "father" (instead of otče). svetac: sveče "saint" (instead of svetče). When these phonetic alterations would substantially change the base noun, the vocative remains equal to the nominative, for example tetak "uncle", mačak "male cat", bratac "cousin". This also holds true for foreign names ending with -k, -g and -h like Džek (Jack), Dag (Doug), King, Hajnrih.

Male names ending with -o and -e have a vocative equal to the infinitive: Marko, Mihailo, Danilo, Đorđe, Pavle, Radoje etc.

Second declension

The second declension affects nouns with the ending -a. These are mainly of feminine but sometimes also of masculine gender. These nouns have a vocative suffix -o: riba: ribo "fish", sluga: slugo "servant", kolega: kolego "colleague", poslovođa: poslovođo "manager".

Exemptions to this rule are male and female names, which have a vocative equal to the nominative, e. g. Vera, Zorka, Olga, Marija, Gordana, Nataša, Nikola, Kosta, Ilija etc. However, this is different for twosyllabic names with an ascending accent such as Nâda, Zôra, Mîca, Nêna and the male names Pêra, Bôža, Pâja etc., which form vocatives with -o: Nâdo, Zôro, Mîco, Pêro, Bôžo, Pâjo etc.

Denominations of relatives like mama "mom", tata "dad", deda "grandfather", tetka "aunt", ujna "aunt" (mother's brother's wife), strina "aunt" (father's brother's wife), baba "grandmother" have vocatives equal to the nominative. This also holds true for country names ending in -ska, -čka, -ška.

Nouns ending with the diminutive suffix -ica that consist of three or more syllables have a vocative with -e: učiteljica: učiteljice "female teacher", drugarica: drugarice "girlfriend", tatica: tatice "daddy", mamica: mamice "mommy". This also applies to female names Danica: Danice, Milica: Milice, Zorica: Zorice, and the male names Perica: Perice, Tomica: Tomice. Nouns of this class that can be applied to both males and females usually have a vocative ending of -ico (pijanica: pijanico "drunkard", izdajica: izdajico "traitor", kukavica: kukavico "coward"), but vocatives with -ice are also seen.

The use of vocative endings for names varies among Serbo-Croatian dialects. People in Croatia often use only nominative forms as vocatives, while others are more likely to use grammatical vocatives.^[21]

Third declension

The third declension affects feminine nouns ending with a consonant. The vocative is formed by appending the suffix -i to the nominative (reč: reči "word", noć: noći "night").

Slovak

Until the end of the 1980s, the existence of a distinct vocative case in Slovak was recognised and taught at schools. Today, the case is no longer considered to exist except for a few archaic examples of the original vocative remaining in religious, literary or ironic contexts:

Nominative	Vocative	Translation	Nominative	Vocative	Translation	Nominative	Vocative	Translation
Boh m.	Bože	God	Ježiš m.	Ježišu	Jesus	mama f.	mamo	mother
Kristus m.	Kriste	Christ	priateľ m.	priateľu	friend	žena f.	ženo	woman
pán m.	pane	lord	brat m.	bratu, bratku	brother
otec m.	otče	father	syn m.	synu, synku	son
človek m.	človeče	man, human
chlap m.	chlape	man
chlapec m.	chlapče	boy

In everyday use, the Czech vocative is sometimes retrofitted to certain words:

Nominative	Vocative	Translation
majster m.	majstre	maestro
šéf m.	šéfe	boss
švagor m.	švagre	brother-in-law

Another stamp of vernacular vocative is emerging, presumably under the influence of Hungarian for certain family members or proper names:

Nominative	Vocative	Translation
otec m.	oci	father
mama f.	mami	mother
babka f.	babi	grandmother, old woman
Paľo m.	Pali	Paul, domestic form
Zuza f.	Zuzi	Susan, domestic form

Ukrainian

Ukrainian has retained the vocative case mostly as it was in Proto-Slavic:^[22]

Masculine nouns			Feminine nouns
Nominative	Vocative	Translation	Nominative	Vocative	Translation
бог boh	боже bože	god	матуся matusja	матусю matusju	minnie
друг druh	друже druže	friend	неня nenja	нене nene	nanny
брат brat	брате brate	brother	бабця babcja	бабцю babcju	granny
чоловік čolovik	чоловіче čoloviče	man	жінка žinka	жінко žinko	woman
хлопець chlopec'	хлопче chlopče	boy	дружина družyna	дружино družyno	wife
святий отець svjatyj otec'	святий отче svjatyj otče	Holy Father	дівчина divčyna	дівчино divčyno	girl
пан pan	пане pane	sir, Mr.	сестра sestra	сестро sestro	sister
приятель pryjatel'	приятелю pryjatelju	fellow	людина ljudyna	людино ljudyno	human
батько bat'ko	батьку bat'ku	father
син syn	сину synu	son

There are some exceptions:

Nominative	Vocative	Translation
мати maty f.	мамо mamo	mother
божа матір boža matir f.	матір божа matir boža	God's Mother

It is used even for loanwords and foreign names:

Nominative	Vocative	Translation
Джон Džon m.	Джоне Džone	John
пан президент pan prezydent m.	пане президенте pane prezydente	Mr. President

It is obligatory for all native names:

Masculine		Feminine
Nominative	Vocative	Nominative	Vocative
Володимир Volodymyr	Володимире Volodymyre	Мирослава Myroslava	Мирославо Myroslavo
Святослав Svjatoslav	Святославе Svjatoslave	Ганна Hanna	Ганно Hanno

It is used for patronymics:

Nominative	Vocative
Андрій Васильович Andrij Vasylovyč m.	Андрію Васильовичу Andriju Vasyliovyču
Ірина Богданівна Iryna Bohdanivna f.	Ірино Богданівно Iryno Bohdanivno

Latin

In Latin, the form of the vocative case of a noun is often the same as the nominative. Exceptions include singular non-neuter 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?"): Brute is the vocative case and Brutus would be the nominative.

Nouns that end in -ius end with -ī instead of the expected -ie. Thus, Julius becomes Julī and filius becomes filī. The shortening does not shift the accent so the vocative of Vergilius is Vergilī, with accent on the second syllable even though it is short. Nouns that end in -aius and -eius have vocatives that end in -aī or -eī even though the i in the nominative is consonantal.

First-declension and second-declension adjectives also have distinct vocative forms in the masculine singular if the nominative ends in -us, with the ending -e. Adjectives that end in -ius have vocatives in -ie so the vocative of eximius is eximie.

Nouns and adjectives that end in -eus do not follow the rules above. Meus forms the vocative irregularly as mī or meus, while Christian Deus does not have a distinct vocative and retains the form Deus. "My God!" in Latin is thus mī Deus!, but Jerome's Vulgate consistently used Deus meus as a vocative. Classical Latin did not use a vocative of deus either (in reference to pagan gods, the Romans used the suppletive form dive).

Romance languages

West Iberian languages

Portuguese drops the article to form the vocative. The vocative is always between commas and, like in many other languages, a particle Ó is commonly used:

Ó Jesus, ajude-nos!	O Jesus, help us!
Menino, vem cá!	Boy, come here!
Não faças isso, amigo.	Don't do that, [my] friend.

In Extremaduran and Fala, some post-tonical vowels open in vocative forms of nouns, a new development that is unrelated to the Latin vocative case.

Catalan

Catalan drops the article to form the vocative.

French

Like English, French sometimes uses (or historically used) a particle Ô to mark vocative phrases rather than by change to the form of the noun. A famous example is the title and first line of the Canadian national anthem, O Canada (French title: Ô Canada), a vocative phrase addressing Canada.

Romanian

The vocative case in Romanian is partly inherited, occasionally causing other morphophonemic changes (see also the article on Romanian nouns):

• 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), also in masculine (nebunul)
  • "deșteaptă": "deșteapto!" (smart one (f), often used sarcastically),
  • "Ileana": "Ileano!" (Helen);

Since there is no -o vocative in Latin, it must have been borrowed from Slavic: compare the corresponding Bulgarian forms сестро (sestro), откачалко (otkachalko), Елено (Eleno).

• plural, all genders: "-lor" as in
  • "frați": "fraților!" (brothers),
  • "boi": "boilor!" (oxen, used toward people as an invective),
  • "doamne și domni": "doamnelor și domnilor!" (ladies and gentlemen).

In formal speech, the vocative often simply copies the nominative/accusative form even when it does have its own form. That is because the vocative is often perceived as very direct and so can seem rude.

Venetian

Venetian has lost all case endings, like most other Romance languages. However, with feminine proper names the role of the vocative is played by the absence of the determiner: the personal article ła / l' usually precedes feminine names in other situations, even in predicates. Masculine names and other nouns lack articles and so rely on prosody to mark forms of address:

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!

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!

Arabic

 

Look up يا in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Properly speaking, Arabic has only three cases: 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 yā (Arabic: يا) placed before a noun inflected in the nominative case (or accusative if the noun is in construct form). In English translations, it is often translated literally as O instead of being omitted.^[23][24] A longer form used in Classical Arabic is أيّها ayyuhā (masculine), أيّتها ayyatuhā (feminine), sometimes combined with yā. The particle yā was also used in the old Castilian language, because of Arabic influence via Mozarabic immigrations^{[citation needed]}.

Mandarin

Mandarin uses no special inflected forms for address. However, special forms and morphemes (that are not inflections) exist for addressing.

Mandarin has several particles that can be attached to the word of address to mark certain special vocative forces, where appropriate. A common one is 啊 a, attached to the end of the address word. For example, 日记 rìjì "diary" becomes 日记啊 rìjì'a.

Certain specialized vocative morphemes also exist, albeit with limited applicabilities. For instance, the Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese, to express strong feelings (especially negative ones) to someone, a neutral tone suffix -ei may be attached to certain address words. It is most commonly applied to the word 孙子 (sūnzi, "grandson"), to form sūnzei, meaning approximately "Hey you nasty one!". Another example is 小子 (xiǎozi, lit. "kid; young one"), resulting in xiǎozei "Hey kiddo!".

Japanese

See also: Japanese particles § yo

The vocative case is present in Japanese as the particle よ.^[25] This usage is often literary or poetic. For example:

雨よ雪に変わってくれ！	O Rain! Please change to snow!
万国の労働者よ、団結せよ！	Workers of the world, unite!

In conversational Japanese, this same particle is often used at the end of a sentence to indicate assertiveness, certainty or emphasis.

Georgian

In Georgian, the vocative case is used to address the second-person singular and plural. For word roots that end with a consonant, the vocative case suffix is -o, and for the words that end with a vowel, it is -v like in Old Georgian, but for some words, it is considered archaic. For example, kats- is the root for the word "man". If one addresses someone with the 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:

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 personal pronouns are also used in the vocative case. Shen "you" (singular) and tkven "you" (plural) in the vocative case become she! and tkve, without the -n. Therefore, one could, for instance, say, with the declension of all of the elements:

She lamazo kalo! "you beautiful woman!"

Korean

The vocative case in Korean is commonly used with first names in casual situations by using the vocative case marker(호격 조사) 아 (a) if the name ends in a consonant and 야 (ya) if the name ends with a vowel:^[26]

미진이 집에 가? (Mijini jibe ga?) (Is Mijin going home?)

미진아, 집에 가? (Mijina, jibe ga?) (Mijin, are you going home?)

동배 뭐 해? (Dongbae mwo hae?) (What is Dongbae doing?)

동배야, 뭐 해? (Dongbaeya, mwo hae?) (Dongbae, what are you doing?)

In formal Korean, the marker 여 (yeo) or 이여 (iyeo) is used, the latter if the root ends with a consonant. Thus, a quotation of William S. Clark would be translated as follows:

소년이여, 야망을 가져라. (sonyeoniyeo, yamangeul gajyeora.) (Boys, be ambitious.)

The honorific infix 시 (si) is inserted in between the 이 (i) and 여 (yeo).

신이시여, 부디 저들을 용서하소서. (sinisiyeo, budi jeodeureul yongseohasoseo.) (Oh god, please forgive them.)

In Middle Korean, there were three honorific classes of the vocative case:^[27]

Form	하	아/야	여/이여
Honorific	High	Plain	Low with added nuance of exclamation

Hungarian

Hungarian has a number of vocative-like constructions, even though it lacks an explicit vocative inflection.

Noun phrases in a vocative context always take the zero article.^[28] While noun phrases can take zero articles for other reasons, the lack of an article otherwise expected marks a vocative construction. This is especially prominent in dialects of Hungarian where personal proper names and other personal animate nouns tend to take the appropriate definite article, similarly to certain dialects of German detailed above. For example:

Nominative	Vocative
(Az) Olivér még beszélget. Oliver is still chatting.	Olivér, gyere ide! Oliver, come over here.
Kiönthette voln’ a honfi megtelt szívét. Might have pour'd the full tide of a patriot's heart.	Honfi, mit ér epedő kebel e romok ormán? Patriot, why do you yearn on these ruins?^[29]
A szerelem csodaszép. Love is wonderful.	Látod, szerelem, mit tettél! O Love, look what you have done!
(Az) Isten szerelmére! For the love of God!	Isten, áldd meg a magyart! God, bless the Hungarians!

With certain words such as barát ("friend"), hölgy ("lady"), úr ("gentleman, lord"), vocation is, in addition to the zero article, always^[30] marked by the first person possessive:^[31]

Nominative	Vocative
A nemesek báljára megérkeztek a hölgyek és az urak. The ladies and the gentlemen have arrived to the nobility's ball.	Hölgyeim és uraim, kezdődjék a tánc! Ladies and gentlemen, let the dancing begin!
Ha az Úr nem építi a házat, hiába fáradoznak az építők. Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.	Magasztallak Uram, felemeltél engem! I will exalt you, O Lord, for you lifted me out of the depth!
A barát mindig segít. A friend always helps out. A barátom fiatal. My friend is young.	Tudnál segíteni, barátom? Could you help out, (my) friend?

Words like testvér ("sibling, brother") and other words of relation do not require the first person possessive, but it is readily used in common speech, especially in familiar contexts:

Nominative	Vocative
A testvérek elsétáltak a boltba. The siblings walked to the shop.	Kedves testvéreim! / Kedves testvérek! (My) dear brothers (and sisters)!
(Az) apához megyek. I'm going to dad.	Apám, hogy vagy? / Apa, hogy vagy? Dad, how are you?

The second-person pronoun^[30] can be used to emphasize a vocation when appropriate: Hát miért nem adtad oda neki, te bolond? ("Why did you not give it to him, you fool?"), Te Karcsi, nem láttad a szemüvegem? ("Charlie, have you seen my glasses?"), Lógtok ezért még, ti gazemberek. ("You shall yet hang for this, crooks!"), etc.

References

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16. ČRo: Oslovování v češtině
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