Vocative case

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; the comma that should be applied in such a context is referred to as a vocative comma. 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", 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.''Реформатский А. А.'' Введение в языковедение / Под ред. В. А. Виноградова. — М.: Аспект Пресс. 1998. С. 488. 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:

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".

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 , 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 ''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!)

=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):

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".

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

Brythonic languages

=Welsh

=

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'' (" earfriends") 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

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''. 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.

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, 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:

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):

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:

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). 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.

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. 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 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.

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.

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

Indo-Aryan languages

Hindi-Urdu

In Hindi-Urdu

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