In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) 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".
As observed by Zwicky, vocative case is used to express at least two functions: (i) as a call aimed to attract the attention of an unratified overhearer, as (ii) address to maintain and perform the social relation towards the hearer.
Some authors including Gutzmann assume that so-called expressive vocatives are further distinct vocative function.
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, Modern Greek and most Slavic languages. Some linguists, such as , 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.
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:
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 âÂÂé (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 ÃÂ, à ¾, and à ¡, 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).
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".
Some nouns of the e- and a- stems declensions (both proper ones and not) are stressed differently: "aikà ¡tÃÂ": "aikà ¡te!" (square); "tauta": "tauta!". In addition, nouns of e-stems have an ablaut of long vowel àin nominative and short vowel e in vocative. In pronunciation, àis close-mid vowel , 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, -ÃÂlis 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.
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!)
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):
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 .
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 "".
The name is actually the Manx vocative of (Mary).
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 â teachers will say "" (mutation of ) and signage such as one right show mutation of to draw attention to the importance of the notice.
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 á½ÂûùóÃÂÃÂùÃÂÃÂÿù, 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".
Some traditional texts use Jesu, the Latin vocative form of Jesus. One of the best-known examples is Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.
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:
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):
The native words and 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:
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). 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.
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 or , which either precede or follow the noun in question. This is not the case when in vocative constructions.
In Ancient Greek, the vocative case is usually identical to the nominative case, with the exception of first-declension masculine nouns (ending in -ñàor -÷ÃÂ), second-declension non-neuter nouns (ending in -ÿÃÂ) and third-declension non-neuter nouns.
In the first declension, masculines in -ᾱàhave the vocative in -á¾± (ýõᾱýïᾱ); those in -ÃÂֈhave -á¾° (ÃÂÿûá¿ÂÃÂñ), all others in -ֈhave -÷ (á¼ÂÃÂÃÂõïô÷) except names of nations and compounds: àÃÂÃÂÃÂá¾°, ãúÃÂøᾰ, óõÃÂ-üÃÂÃÂÃÂá¾°, ÃÂñùôÿ-ÃÂÃÂïòᾰ. has a recessive accent vocative . Second-declension masculine and feminine nouns have a regular vocative ending in -õ. Third-declension nouns with one syllable ending in -àhave 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. ãÃÂúÃÂìÃÂ÷ÃÂ, voc. ãÃÂúÃÂñÃÂõÃÂ.
In Modern Greek, second-declension masculine nouns still have a vocative ending in -õ. 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.
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 at the end of names.
Instead of the vocative case, forms of address may be created by using the grammatical particles (feminine) and (masculine):
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 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 . The vocative case has many similarities with the oblique case in Hindustani.
In Sanskrit, the vocative ( ) is morphologically distinct from the nominative only in the singular. In vowel-stem nouns, if there is a in the nominative, it is omitted and the stem vowel may be altered: and become , becomes , and become short and becomes . Consonant-stem nouns have no ending in the vocative:
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 ( : ) or ( : ), but occasionally ( : , : , : ) and ( : , : , : , : ) appear. Nouns ending with have a vocative ending of ( : , : ), likewise nouns ending with assume the vocative suffix ( : ). This is similar to Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, and Sanskrit, which also employ the -e suffix in vocatives.
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.
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:
Vocative case forms also normally exist for female given names:
Except for forms that end in -, they can be considered rude and are often avoided, especially in some regions of Bulgaria. For female kinship terms, the vocative is always used:
In Czech, the vocative (, or â ) usually differs from the nominative in masculine and feminine nouns in the singular.
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.
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 , and . Neuter nouns and all plural nouns have the same form in the nominative and the vocative: