Vocative case
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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.
Historically, the vocative case was an element of the Indoeuropean system of cases, and existed in Latin, Sanskrit, and Classical Greek. Although it has been lost by many modern Indoeuropean languages, some languages have retained the vocative case to this day. Examples are Modern Greek and Slavic languages such as Polish, Czech, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and the modern Celtic languages such as Scottish Gaelic and Irish. Among the Romance languages the vocative was preserved in Romanian. It also occurs in some non-Indoeuropean languages, such as Georgian, Arabic, Chinese and Korean.
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The vocative case in various languages
Latin
In Latin the vocative case of a noun is the same as the nominative, except for masculine singular second declension nouns that have the endings -us or -ius in the nominative case. An example would be the famous line from Shakespeare, "Et tu, Brute?" ("And you, Brutus?", commonly translated as "You too, Brutus?"), where Brute is the vocative case, whilst Brutus would be the nominative case. When "-ius" nouns are put into the vocative, however, they lose this ending and replace it with a "ī". Therefore, "Julius" becomes "Julī". When Latin names in the vocative case are translated into English, the nominative case is usually used, as English simply 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) (see below).
Four historical Indoeuropean languages
Take, for example, the word for "wolf":
| Proto-Indoeuropean | 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 theme 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 in front of the Indoeuropean words means that they are merely hypothetical reconstructions, not based on any written sources.
Polish
In Polish, unlike in Latin, the vocative (wołacz) is almost always different from the nominative case and is formed according to a complex grammatical pattern. Here are some examples.
| Nominative case | Vocative case |
| Pani Ewa (Ms Eve) | Pani Ewo! (Ms Eve!) |
| Pan profesor (Mr Professor) | Panie profesorze! (Mr Professor!) |
| Krzysztof (Christoph) | Krzysztofie! (Christoph!) |
| Krzyś (affectionate form of Krzysztof) | Krzysiu! |
| Ewusia (affectionate form of Ewa) | Ewusiu! |
| Marek (Mark) | Marku! |
| ciemność (darkness) | ciemności! |
| książka (book) | książko! |
In informal speech, the nominative is increasingly used in place of the vocative, but this is regarded as a bad style in any formal situation.
Vocative-like expressions in English
In English the vocative case is not marked, but English syntax performs a similar function; witness: "John, could you come here?" or "I don't think so, John", where "John" is neither subject nor object of the verb, but rather indicates the person to whom the statement is being addressed.
Other examples for vocative markers are O Death, where is thy victory, or Hey, you!. These vocative expressions are usually classified as interjections and can occur in any clause, irrespective of mood.
Some examples:
- Good morning, class!
- Don't forget your swimming trunks, George.
- Hey, George, did you remember to bring your swimming trunks?
- No, Bob, I forgot.
- I'm proud of you, son.
- If I were you, Mary, I'd take Spanish next year instead of French, it's the Future.
- Hey, Jude.
However, many English speakers continue to distinguish between interjection and direct address in both prayers and songs of worship, for example: Oh save me for your mercies' sake, O Lord!
Russian
Archaisms
In Russian the vocative case is an obsolete feature, preserved only in certain cases of archaic usage.
- In "frozen" expressions, such as proverbs. For example: "Vrachu, istselisya sam" ("Physician, heal thyself"). Here "vrach" is "doctor", and "vrachu", with the accent on the first syllable, is vocative; accenting the last syllable produces the dative case.
- The most commonly heard vocative archaism in Russian is Боже мой! (Bozhe moy!), "O, my God!" Бог (Bog) is the nominative singular of "God." The final -g is softened to -zh- by the vocative suffix. Note also the frequent expression, "Go'spodi!", meaning "Lord" from the nominative "Gospo'd'".
- In Church Slavonic, which is used in the Russian Orthodox Church. For example, the Patriarch would be addressed as "vladyko", the nominative form of which is "vladyka".
Therefore, most linguists consider Russian no longer to have a vocative case.
Vocative-like expressions
Nevertheless, Russian has vocative-like expressions, the syntax and usage being basically the same as described in the English language section.
Abridged names
Colloquial Russian has a form of given names which some linguists consider to be a reemerging vocative case. It is applicable only to given names that end in a vowel when used in a vocative-like expression: "Len, gde ty?" ("Lena, where are you?") This is basically equivalent to "Lena, gde ty?", the only difference being that the former version suggests a positive personal, emotional bond between the speaker and the person being addressed. This example, as well as the fact that this form is not genetically related to the archaic vocative (which would be "Leno" in this example), leads other linguists to believe that this form is not the vocative case.
Georgian
In Georgian, 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.
Romanian
The vocative case in Romanian is inherited from Latin. Morphologically it is formed using specific endings, 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),
- "deşteaptă" - "deşteapto!" (smart, but this vocative is always used ironically),
- "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 gentlemen).
More often than not 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.
Chinese
In Chinese, the vocative is used with name, kinship term or even positional title in casual situations. This is done by prefix 阿 (a), it is interchageable with 亞 in Cantonese. The use of vocatives is commonly found in Cantonese dialects.
For example:
- Someone named 陳小明 (pinyin: chen xiao ming) can predictably be addressed as 阿明 (pinyin: a ming)
- When addressing one's own father and mother it is often said: 阿爸 (a ba) and 阿媽 (a ma) which are equivalent to "dad" and "mom" in English. This practice can applied to other simple single syllable kinship terms. As honorific, a stranger can be addressed as 阿伯 (a bak) for an old man, and 阿婆 (a po) for an old woman. This is found commonly in Cantonese dialects.
- When addressing someone of authority such as a male police officer or even male teacher, particularly in Hong Kong, 阿 Sir (a "sir") would be the popular expression. Note also the anglicism in the Hong Kong speech. A female equivalent of the vocative expression, however, less common.
Korean (Altaic)
The vocative case in Korean is used only 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 머 해? (Dongbae meo hae?)
What is Dongbae doing?
동배야, 머 해? (Dongbae-ya, meo hae?)
"Dongbae, what are you doing?be:Клічны склон
bg:Звателен падеж
cs:Vokativ
da:Vokativ
de:Vokativ
eo:Vokativo
es:Caso vocativo
fi:Vokatiivi
fr:Vocatif
hr:Vokativ
hu:Megszólító eset
it:Vocativo
ja:呼格
nl:Vocatief
no:Vokativ
pl:Wołacz
pt:Vocativo
ro:Cazul vocativ
sv:Vokativ
zh:呼格