Vocative case

Template:Short description Template:More citations needed In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated Template:Sc) 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. A noun of address 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 noun of address 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".

Historically, the vocative case was an element of the Indo-European case system and existed in Latin, Sanskrit, and Ancient Greek. In many modern Indo-European languages (English, Spanish, etc.) the vocative case has been absorbed by the nominative, but others still distinguish it, including the Baltic languages, some Celtic languages and most Slavic languages. Some linguists, such as Template:Ill, argue that the vocative form is not a case but a special form of nouns not belonging to any case, as nouns of address are not related syntactically to other words in sentences. 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
Sanskrit	(Template:Transliteration)	(Template:Transliteration)
Classical Greek	(Template:Transliteration)	(Template:Transliteration)
Latin
Lithuanian
Old Church Slavonic	(Template:Transliteration)	(Template:Transliteration)

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 and the vocative case is , but the accusative case is . 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.

Vocative singulars in Slavic languages appear to be irregular as a consequence of the Slavic first palatalization, which caused *k, *g and *x, when followed by an *e (as in the vocative suffix), to become č, ž, and š, respectively. Some modern Slavic languages have replaced these forms with a more regular vocative ending, so for example in Czech the usual masculine animate vocative is -e, except for roots ending in velar consonants, where it is now usually -u (e.g. > , but > ). This is an instance of the paradigmatic complexity introduced into Slavic by successive waves of palatalisation, with some languages retaining more complex or irregular paradigms (such as Czech), and others tending towards simplification and regularization (such as Russian, which has lost the vocative as a productive case entirely).

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				wolf	a-stems	[sg.]			people
jo-stems			Old Lith.	wind	e-stems				cat
ijo-stems				rooster	i-stems				sheep
a-stems				sergeant-major	r-stems				daughter
e-stems				uncle	irregular				daughter-in-law
i-stems				thief	proper names
u-stems				son	diminutives				little sister
n-stems				water
proper names			Old Lith.	John
diminutives				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 in vocative. In pronunciation, ė is close-mid vowel Template:IPAblink, and e is open-mid vowel .

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 , which causes lenition of the following 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 vocatives resemble the genitive and feminine vocatives 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 . 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. = Men!)

Gender		Masculine			Feminine
Sg.	Nominative
	Genitive
	Vocative
Pl.	Nominative
	Genitive
	Vocative
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 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

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

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 "".

Nominative case	Vocative case

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

Brythonic languages

Welsh

File:Modd cyfarchol.jpg

Sign at Aberystwyth University in Welsh displaying use of the vocative case – Template:Gloss mutated to

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 means "gentlemen and ladies", with the initial consonant of undergoing a soft mutation; the same is true of ("[dear] friends") in which has been lenited. It is often used to draw attention to at public notices orally and written – teachers will say "" (mutation of Template:Gloss) and signage such as one right show mutation of Template:Gloss to draw attention to the importance of the notice.

Germanic languages

English

The vocative is not a grammatical case in English. Expressions for which the vocative would be used in languages which have that case, are nominative in English. In translations of languages that use the vocative case, translators have sometimes added the particle "O" before the noun, as is often seen in the King James Version of the Bible: for example the Greek ὀλιγόπιστοι, vocative masculine plural (in Matthew 8:26), is translated "O ye of little faith". 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. O may be considered a form of clitic and should not be confused with the interjection oh. However, as the Oxford English Dictionary points out, "O" and "oh" were originally used interchangeably.

Modern English commonly uses the objective case for nouns of address but sets them off from the rest of the sentences with pauses as interjections, rendered in writing as commas (the vocative comma). Two common examples of nouns of address in English are the phrases "Mr. President" and "Madam Chairwoman".Template:Clarify

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:

	There is Paul. Paul, come over [please]!
	O [my] dear coffee pot, you are dripping!
	"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 , which is in the vocative. That comes from Latin, as the Latin for Jesus in the nominative is and its vocative is . That is also the case in traditional English (without the accent) (see above): Template:Sister project

Nominative		Jesus loves you.
Vocative		O Jesus, our saviour.

The native words Template:Gloss and Template:Gloss also sometimes appear in the shortened forms and in vocative phrases. Additionally, adjectives in vocative phrases are always weakly declined, but elsewhere with proper nouns, they would usually be declined strongly:

strong adjective, full noun		A dear friend is better than gold.
weak adjective, shortened noun		Dear friend, tell me a story.

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).Template:Rp 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. being when definite, but when plural, an instance of suppletion.Template:Rp

Non-vocative	Vocative	English translation
		dear friend
		wise man
		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 Template:Gloss or Template:Gloss, which either precede or follow the noun in question. This is not the case when in vocative constructions.

Greek

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

In the first declension, masculines in -ᾱς have the vocative in -ᾱ (νεᾱνίᾱ); those in -της have -ᾰ (πολῖτα), all others in -ης have -η (Ἀτρείδη) except names of nations and compounds: Πέρσᾰ, Σκύθᾰ, γεω-μέτρᾰ, παιδο-τρίβᾰ. has a recessive accent vocative . Second-declension masculine and feminine 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 (, night); otherwise, the stem (with necessary alterations, such as dropping final consonants) serves as the vocative (nom. , voc. ; nom. , gen. , voc. ). 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: "" "Come here, Christos" instead of "". 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 (Demotic , "Greek man"), which have the same nominative and vocative forms instead.

Iranian languages

Kurdish

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

Kurmanji		Jafi
Name	Vocative	Name	Vocative
(m)		Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
(m)		Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
(m)		Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
(f)		Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
(f)		Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
(f)		Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration

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

Name	Vocative
(f)
(m)

Indo-Aryan languages

Hindi-Urdu

In Hindi-Urdu (Hindustani), the vocative case has the same form as the nominative case for all singular nouns except for the singular masculine nouns that terminate in the vowel Template:IPAslink Template:Transliteration and for all nouns in their plural forms the vocative case is always distinct from the nominative case. 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 Template:IPAslink Template:Transliteration. The vocative case has many similarities with the oblique case in Hindustani.

Noun Classes		Singular		Plural		English
		Nominative	Vocative	Nominative	Vocative
Masculine	ending in Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration		Template:Transliteration	boy
	not ending in Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration			Template:Transliteration	human
Feminine	ending in Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration		Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration	girl
	not ending in Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration		Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration	mother
		Template:Transliteration		Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration	bird

Adjective Classes			Singular		Plural		English
			Nominative	Vocative	Nominative	Vocative
Declinable	masculine		Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration			bad
	feminine		Template:Transliteration
Undeclinable (not ending in Template:Transliteration or Template:Transliteration in nominative singular)	masculine	with noun	Template:Transliteration				fool
	feminine
	masculine	sans noun	Template:Transliteration			Template:Transliteration
	feminine

Sanskrit

In Sanskrit, the vocative ( Template:Transliteration) is morphologically distinct from the nominative only in the singular. In vowel-stem nouns, if there is a Template:Transliteration in the nominative, it is omitted and the stem vowel may be altered: Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration become Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration becomes Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration become short and Template:Transliteration becomes Template:Transliteration. Consonant-stem nouns have no ending in the vocative:

Noun	Singular	Dual	Plural
(Template:Transliteration, masc., 'boy')	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
(Template:Transliteration, fem., 'creeper')	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
(Template:Transliteration, neut., 'fruit')	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration

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 Template:Transliteration (Template:Transliteration : Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss) or Template:Transliteration (Template:Transliteration : Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss), but occasionally Template:Transliteration (Template:Transliteration : Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss, Template:Transliteration : Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss, Template:Transliteration : Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss) and Template:Gloss (Template:Transliteration : Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss, Template:Transliteration : Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss, Template:Transliteration : Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss, Template:Transliteration : Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss) appear. Nouns ending with Template:Transliteration have a vocative ending of Template:Transliteration (Template:Transliteration : Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss, Template:Transliteration : Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss), likewise nouns ending with Template:Transliteration assume the vocative suffix Template:Transliteration (Template:Transliteration : Template:Transliteration Template:Gloss). This is similar to Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, and Sanskrit, which also employ the -e suffix in vocatives.

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
Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration

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

Vocative phrases like (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	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
Lord	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
Jesus Christ	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
comrade	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
priest	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
frog	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
fool	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration

Vocative case forms also normally exist for female given names:

Nominative	Vocative
Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration

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

English word	Nominative	Vocative
Grandmother	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
Mom	Template:Transliteration Мама Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration Template:Transliteration
Aunt	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration
Sister	Template:Transliteration	Template:Transliteration

Czech

In Czech, the vocative (, or – Template:Gloss) usually differs from the nominative in masculine and feminine nouns in the singular.

Nominative case	Vocative case	Gloss
Feminine
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
Masculine
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
Neuter
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss

It is a common dialectal feature of Czech to use the nominative with female names () or when following a title (, , ). It is particularly prevalent in regional dialects, such as those of Moravia, where it has been the only form in use for hundreds of years.

The full vocative remains part of the official standard propagated by the Czech government. In the Czech Republic and elsewhere in eastern Europe, language competence is often conflated with adherence to official norms, and the use of the nominative - while common - may therefore be stigmatised.

Polish

In Polish, the vocative () is formed with feminine nouns usually taking except those where the last consonant is soft e.g. , , , and , which take . Feminine nouns that end with , usually in the suffixes and , as well as feminine nouns that end with a soft consonant, usually words with the suffix , but also irregular words like take the ending . Feminine nouns that end with a hardened consonant e.g. take the ending . Masculine nouns generally follow the complex pattern of the locative case, with the exception of a handful of words such as Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss and Template:Gloss. Neuter nouns and all plural nouns have the same form in the nominative and the vocative:

Nominative case	Vocative case	Gloss
Feminine
		Template:Gloss
		diminutive form of )
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
Masculine
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
		Template:Gloss
	(poetic)	Template:Gloss

The latter form of the vocative of Template:Gloss 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
  • (Doctor!), (Chairman!)
  • (You arrive too late, swimmer)
  • (son), (mum), (dad)
• After adjectives, demonstrative pronouns and possessive pronouns
  • (You don't understand me, my dear Basia!)
• To address an individual in an offensive or condescending manner:
  • ("Shut up, you buffoon!")
  • ("What are you staring at, idiot?")
  • ("Stop writing, idiot, you don't know what you're doing!")
  • ("Get lost, hillbilly!")
• After "Ty" (second person singular pronoun)
  • (You liar!)
• Set expressions:

The vocative is also often employed in affectionate and endearing contexts such as ("I love you, Chris!") or ("I miss you, my wife."). In addition, the vocative form sometimes takes the place of the nominative in informal conversations: instead of ("Joey's arrived"). When referring to someone by their first name, the nominative commonly takes the place of the vocative as well: instead of ("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: "" (Template:Transliteration, vocative of "" Template:Transliteration, "God") and "" (Template:Transliteration, "My God!"), and "" (Template:Transliteration, vocative of "" Template:Transliteration, "Lord"), which can also be expressed as "" (Template:Transliteration, Template:Transliteration vocative of "" Template:Transliteration, "Jesus"). The vocative is also used in prayers: "" (Template:Transliteration, "Our Father!"), or the Russian version of the Jesus Prayer ("Господи Иисусе Христе"). Such expressions are used to express strong emotions (much like English "O my God!"), and are often combined (""). More examples of the historic vocative can be found in other Biblical quotes that are sometimes used as proverbs: "" (Template:Transliteration, "Physician, heal thyself", nom. "", Template:Transliteration). Vocative forms are also used in modern Church Slavonic. The patriarch and bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church are addressed as "" (Template:Transliteration, hegemon, nom. "", Template:Transliteration). In the latter case, the vocative is often also incorrectly used for the nominative to refer to bishops and patriarchs. These Old Church Slavonic words that are present in the current Russian language are known as "fossil words".

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. It is used only for given names and nouns that end in and , which are sometimes dropped in the vocative form: "" ("Lena, where are you?"). It is basically equivalent to "" but suggests a positive personal and emotional bond between the speaker and the person being addressed. Names that end in then acquire a soft sign: "" = "" ("Olga!"). In addition to given names, the form is often used with words like "" (mom) and "" (dad), which would be respectively shortened to "" and "". The plural form is used with words such as "", "" (nom: "", "" guys, gals).

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

Serbo-Croatian

In Serbo-Croatian languages, 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.

The vocative in Serbo-Croatian is formed according to one of three types of declension, which are classes of nouns with the same declension suffixes.

First declension

The first declension comprises masculine nouns that end with a consonant. These have a vocative suffix of either ( Template:Gloss) or ( Template:Gloss).

Nouns terminating in have the vocative suffix: Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, as well as nouns possessing an unsteady : Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, and the noun Template:Gloss. All other nouns in this class form the vocative with : Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss.

In particular, masculine nouns ending with a palatal or prepalatal consonant or form vocatives with the suffix: Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss.

Nouns ending with the velars and are palatalized to in the vocative: Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss. A final becomes in the vocative: Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss. Likewise, a final becomes in only two cases: Template:Gloss and Template:Gloss.

The loss of the unsteady can trigger a sound change by hardening consonants, as in Template:Gloss (not ), Template:Gloss (not ) and Template:Gloss (not ). There may be a loss of before like in Template:Gloss (instead of ), Template:Gloss (instead of ). When these phonetic alterations would substantially change the base noun, the vocative remains equal to the nominative, for example Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss. This also holds true for foreign names ending with and like Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, .

Male names ending with and have a vocative equal to the nominative, for example: .

Second declension

The second declension affects nouns with the ending . These are mainly of feminine but sometimes also of masculine gender. These nouns have a vocative suffix : Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss.

Exemptions to this rule are male and female given names, which have a vocative equal to the nominative, e. g. etc. However, this is different for twosyllabic names with an ascending accent such as female names and male names , etc., which form vocatives with : , etc.

Denominations of relatives like Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss (parent's sister), Template:Gloss (mother's brother's wife), Template:Gloss (father's brother's wife) have vocatives equal to the nominative. This also holds true for country names ending in .

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.

Third declension

The third declension affects feminine nouns ending with a consonant. The vocative is formed by appending the suffix to the nominative ( Template:Gloss, Template:Gloss).

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
m.		God	m.		Jesus	f.		mother
m.		Christ	m.		friend	f.		woman
m.		lord	m.	,	brother
m.		father	m.	,	son
m.		man, human
m.		man
m.		boy

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

Nominative	Vocative	Translation
m.		maestro
m.		boss
m.		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
m.		father
f.		mother
f.		grandmother, old woman
m.		Paul, domestic form
f.		Susan, domestic form

Ukrainian

Ukrainian has retained the vocative case mostly as it was in Proto-Slavic:

Masculine nouns			Feminine nouns
Nominative	Vocative	Translation	Nominative	Vocative	Translation
		god			minnie
		friend			nanny
		brother			granny
		man			woman
		boy			wife
'		Holy Father			girl
		sir, Mr.			sister
		fellow			human, person
		father
		son

There are some exceptions:

Nominative	Vocative	Translation
f.		mother
f.		God's Mother

It is used even for loanwords and foreign names:

Nominative	Vocative	Translation
m.		John
m.		Mr. President

It is obligatory for all native names:

Masculine		Feminine
Nominative	Vocative	Nominative	Vocative

It is used for patronymics:

Nominative	Vocative
m.
f.

Latin

File:Et tu Brute first folio.jpg

"Et tu, Brute?" from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, probably the most famous use of the vocative in literature.

In Latin, the form of the vocative case of a noun is almost always the same as the nominative. Exceptions include singular non-neuter second-declension nouns that end in in the nominative case. An example would be the famous line from Shakespeare, "" (commonly translated as "And you, Brutus?"): is the vocative case and would be the nominative.

Nouns that end in end with instead of the expected . Thus, becomes and becomes . The shortening does not shift the accent so the vocative of is , with accent on the second syllable even though it is short. Nouns that end in and have vocatives that end in or even though the 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 , with the ending . Adjectives that end in have vocatives in so the vocative of is .

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

Greek names in Latin texts conserve their Greek vocative form. E. g., the vocative of is .

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:

	O Jesus, help us!
	Boy, come here!
	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: as in
  • : (man, human being),
  • : or (boy),
  • : (cousin),
  • : (John);
• singular feminine: as in
  • : (sister),
  • : (mad woman), also in masculine ()
  • : (smart one (f), often used sarcastically),
  • : (Helen);

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

• plural, all genders: as in
  • : (brothers),
  • : (oxen, used toward people as an invective),
  • : (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.

Romanesco dialect

In Romanesco dialect the vocative case appears as a regular truncation immediately after the stress.

Compare (vocative, always truncated)

France', vie' qua!

"Francesco/Francesca, come here!"

with (nominative, never truncated)

Francesco/Francesca viene qua

"Francesco/Francesca comes here"

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 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.	Template:Gloss	Template:Gloss
Vocative	Template:Gloss	Template:Gloss

Predicative constructions:

Case	Fem. proper name	Masc. proper name and other nouns
Pred.	Template:Gloss	Template:Gloss
Vocative	Template:Gloss	Template:Gloss

Arabic

Template:Sister project 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 (Template:Langx) 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. A longer form used in Classical Arabic is Template:Transliteration (masculine), Template:Transliteration (feminine), sometimes combined with yā. The particle yā was also used in the old Castilian language because of Arabic influence via Mozarabic immigrations.

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(Template:Lang-zh) attached to the end of the address word. For example, 日记(Template:Lang-zh) "diary" becomes 日记啊 (Template:Lang-zh).

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 (sūnzi, "grandson"), to form sūnzei, meaning approximately "Hey you nasty one!". Another example is (xiǎozi, lit. "kid; young one"), resulting in xiǎozei "Hey kiddo!".

Japanese

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

Template:Transliteration	O Rain! Please change to snow!
Template:Transliteration	Workers of the world, unite!
Template:Transliteration	Young boy, become a legend!

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 (Template:Transliteration) if the name ends in a consonant and (Template:Transliteration) if the name ends with a vowel:

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

The honorific infix (Template:Transliteration) is inserted in between the (Template:Transliteration) and (Template:Transliteration).

In Middle Korean, there were three honorific classes of the vocative case:

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. 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
Oliver is still chatting.	Oliver, come over here.
Might have pour'd the full tide of a patriot's heart.	Patriot, why do you yearn on these ruins?
Love is wonderful.	O Love, look what you have done!
For the love of God!	God, bless the Hungarians!

With certain words such as ("friend"), ("lady"), ("gentleman, lord"), vocation is, in addition to the zero article, always marked by the first person possessive:

Nominative	Vocative
The ladies and the gentlemen have arrived to the nobility's ball.	(My) Ladies and (my) gentlemen, let the dancing begin!
Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.	I will exalt you, O (my) Lord, for you lifted me out of the depth!
A friend always helps out. My friend is young.	Could you help out, (my) friend?

Words like ("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
The siblings walked to the shop.	/ (My) dear brothers (and sisters)!
I'm going to dad.	/ Dad, how are you?

The second-person pronoun can be used to emphasize a vocation when appropriate: ("Why did you not give it to him, you fool?"), ("Charlie, have you seen my glasses?"), ("You shall yet hang for this, crooks!"), etc.

References

• Eleanor Dickey: Greek forms of address. From Herodotus to Lucian. Clarendon, Oxford 1996, ISBN 0-19-815054-7.
• Eleanor Dickey: Latin forms of address. From Plautus to Apuleius. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2002, ISBN 0-19-924287-9.
• Espinal, Teresa M. 2013. On the structure of vocatives. In Barbara Sonnenhauser & Patrizia Noel Aziz Hanna (eds.). Vocative! Addressing between system and performance. Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs 261, 109-132 Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110304176.109
• Virginia Hill: Vocatives. How Syntax meets with Pragmatics. Brill, Leiden 2014, ISBN 978-90-04-26079-5.
• Hill, Virginia. 2007. “Vocatives and the pragmatics–syntax interface”. In: Lingua 117.12, pp. 2077–2105. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2007.01.002.
• Ladd, Robert D. (1978). “Stylized intonation”. In: Language 54.3, pp. 517–540. DOI:http://www.jstor.org/stable/412785.
• Leech, Geoffrey N. 1999. “The distribution and function of vocatives in American and British English conversation”. In: Out of corpora. Ed. by Hilde Hasselgård and Signe Oksefjell. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 107–118.
• Maché, Jakob. 2025. “The diversity of vocative formation across languages” In: Catalan Journal of Linguistics 24.1, pp. 211–271. DOI:https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/catjl.475.
• Portner, Paul. 2007a. “Imperatives and modals”. In: Natural Language Semantics 15.4, pp. 351–383. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-007-9022-y.
• Portner, Paul. 2007b. “Instructions for interpretations as separate performatives”. In: On Information Structure, Meaning and Form. Ed. by Kerstin Schwabe and Susanne Winkler. John Benjamins, pp. 407–426. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1075/la.100.22por
• Stavrou, Melita. 2013. “About the Vocative”. In: The Nominal Structure in Slavic and Beyond. Ed. by Lilia Schürks, Anastasia Giannakidou, and Urtzi Etxeberria. Studies in Generative Grammar 116. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 299–342. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614512790.299.
• Zwicky, Arnold. 1974. ““Hey, Whatsyourname””. In: Papers from the Tenth Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society. April 19–21, 1974. Ed. by Michael La Galy,Robert A. Fox, and Bruck Anthony. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society, pp. 787–801. URL: https://web.stanford.edu/~zwicky/hey-whatsyourname.pdf.