Vocative case
In grammar, the vocative case is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person being addressed or occasionally for the noun modifiers 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: as a call aimed to attract the attention of an unratified overhearer, as 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 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.
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 ◌̩ indicates a consonant serving as a vowel. 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, 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. 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, and others tending towards simplification and regularization.
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 are stressed differently: "aikštė": "aikšte!" ; "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 -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 -o stem and diminutives with the suffixes -elis, -ėlis have an alternative vocative singular form characterized by a zero ending : 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 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 consonant, which is made slender to build the singular vocative. Adjectives are also lenited. In many cases this means that 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 -a. In the spoken dialects the vocative plural is often has the same form as the nominative plural or the dative plural
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.In addition, masculine nouns are slenderized if possible This also changes the pronunciation of the word.
Also, the particle a is placed before the noun unless it begins with a vowel. Examples of the use of the vocative personal names :
The name "Hamish" is just the English spelling of Sheumais, 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 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.
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 in which cyfeillion has been lenited. It is often used to draw attention to at public notices orally and written – teachers will say "Blant" and signage such as one right show mutation of myfyrwyr 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, 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 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. 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.
German dialects
In some German dialects, like the Ripuarian dialect of Cologne, it is common to use the 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 ! |
| Och do leeven Kaffepott, do bes jo am dröppe! | O 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 wikt:Jesús#Icelandic, 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 :
| Nominative | Jesús elskar þig. | Jesus loves you. |
| Vocative | Ó Jesú, frelsari okkar. | O Jesus, our saviour. |
The native words wikt:sonur#Icelandic and wikt:vinur#Icelandic 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:
| strong adjective, full noun | Kær vinur er gulli betri. | A dear friend is better than gold. |
| weak adjective, shortened noun | Kæri vin, segðu mér nú sögu. | 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. 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. wikt:liten#Norwegian Bokmål being lille when definite, but små when plural, an instance of suppletion.| 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 or hun, 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, second-declension non-neuter nouns and third-declension non-neuter nouns.In the first declension, masculines in -ᾱς have the vocative in -ᾱ ; those in -της have -ᾰ, all others in -ης have -η except names of nations and compounds: Πέρσᾰ, Σκύθᾰ, γεω-μέτρᾰ, παιδο-τρίβᾰ. Δεσπότης has a recessive accent vocative δέσποτα. 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 ; otherwise, the stem serves as the vocative. 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, 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 at the end of names.Instead of the vocative case, forms of address may be created by using the grammatical particles lê and lo :
Indo-Aryan languages
Hindi-Urdu
In Hindi-Urdu, 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 आ 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 आ . The vocative case has many similarities with the oblique case in Hindustani.Sanskrit
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:| Noun | Singular | Dual | Plural |
| बाल | हे बाल | हे बालौ | हे बालाः |
| लता | हे लते | हे लते | हे लताः |
| फल | हे फल | हे फले | हे फलानि |
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 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.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 | Петре |
| Тодор | Тодоре |
| Иван | Иване |
More-recent names and foreign names may have a vocative form but it is rarely used.
Vocative phrases like господине министре 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 | Боже |
| Lord | Господ | Господи |
| Jesus Christ | Исус Христос | Исусе Христе |
| comrade | другар | другарю |
| priest | поп | попе |
| frog | жаба | жабо |
| fool | глупак | глупако |
Vocative case forms also normally exist for female given names:
| Nominative | Vocative |
| Елена | Елено |
| Пена | Пено |
| Елица | Елице |
| Радка | Радке |
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 | Бабо |
| Mom | Майка Мама | Майко Мамо |
| Aunt | Леля | Лельо |
| Sister | Сестра | Сестро |
Czech
In Czech, the vocative 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.
Polish
In Polish, the vocative is formed with feminine nouns usually taking -o except those where the last consonant is soft e.g. -sia, -cia, -nia, and -dzia, which take -u. Feminine nouns that end with -i, usually in the suffixes -ini and -yni, as well as feminine nouns that end with a soft consonant, usually words with the suffix -ść, but also irregular words like sól take the ending -i. Feminine nouns that end with a hardened consonant e.g. noc take the ending -y. Masculine nouns generally follow the complex pattern of the locative case, with the exception of a handful of words such as Wiktionary:Bóg, Wiktionary:ojciec and Wiktionary:chłopiec. Neuter nouns and all plural nouns have the same form in the nominative and the vocative: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!" and "Боже мой!", and "Господи!", which can also be expressed as "Господи Иисусе!". The vocative is also used in prayers: "Отче наш!", or the Russian version of the Jesus Prayer. Such expressions are used to express strong emotions, and are often combined. More examples of the historic vocative can be found in other Biblical quotes that are sometimes used as proverbs: "Врачу, исцелися сам". Vocative forms are also used in modern Church Slavonic. The patriarch and bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church are addressed as "владыко". 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 -a and -я, which are sometimes dropped in the vocative form: "Лен, где ты?". 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!". In addition to given names, the form is often used with words like "мама" and "папа", which would be respectively shortened to "мам" and "пап". The plural form is used with words such as "ребят", "девчат".Such usage differs from the historic vocative, which would be "Лено" 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 -e or -u.Nouns terminating in -or have the -e vocative suffix: doktor : doktore, major : majore, majstor : majstore, as well as nouns possessing an unsteady a: vetar : vetre, svekar : svekre, and the noun car : care. All other nouns in this class form the vocative with -u: gospodar : gospodaru, pastir : pastiru, inženjer : inženjeru, pisar : pisaru, sekretar : sekretaru.
In particular, masculine nouns ending with a palatal or prepalatal consonant j, lj, nj, č, dž, ć, đ or š form vocatives with the -u suffix: heroj : heroju, prijatelj : prijatelju, konj : konju, vozač : vozaču, mladić : mladiću, kočijaš : kočijašu, muž : mužu.
Nouns ending with the velars -k, -g and -h are palatalized to -č, -ž, -š in the vocative: vojnik : vojniče, drug : druže, duh : duše. A final -c becomes -č in the vocative: stric : striče, lovac : lovče. Likewise, a final -z becomes -ž in only two cases: knez : kneže and vitez : viteže.
The loss of the unsteady a can trigger a sound change by hardening consonants, as in vrabac : vrapče, lisac : lišče and ženomrzac : ženomršče . There may be a loss of -t before -c like in otac : oče, svetac : sveče . When these phonetic alterations would substantially change the base noun, the vocative remains equal to the nominative, for example tetak, mačak, bratac. This also holds true for foreign names ending with -k, -g and -h like Džek, Dag, King, Hajnrih.
Male names ending with -o and -e have a vocative equal to the nominative, for example: Marko, Mihailo, Danilo, Đorđe, Pavle, Radoje.
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, sluga : slugo, kolega : kolego, poslovođa : poslovođo.Exemptions to this rule are male and female given 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 female names Nâda, Zôra, Mîca, Nêna and male names Pêra, Bôža, Pâja, etc., which form vocatives with -o: Nâdo, Zôro, Mîco, Pêro, Bôžo, Pâjo, etc.
Denominations of relatives like mama, tata, baba, deda, tetka, ujna, strina 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, 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 -i to the nominative.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: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:
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 almost always 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?" : 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.
Greek names in Latin texts conserve their Greek vocative form. E. g., the vocative of Andrēās is Andrēā.
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, 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 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, a vocative phrase addressing Canada.Romanian
The vocative case in Romanian is partly inherited, occasionally causing other morphophonemic changes :- singular masculine/neuter: -e as in
- *om: omule!,
- *băiat: băiete! or băiatule!,
- *văr: vere!,
- *Ion: Ioane! ;
- singular feminine: -o as in
- *soră: soro!,
- *nebună: nebuno!, also in masculine
- *deșteaptă: deșteapto!,
- *Ileana: Ileano! ;
- plural, all genders: -lor as in
- *frați: fraților!,
- *boi: boilor!,
- *doamne și domni: doamnelor și domnilor!.
Romanesco dialect
In Romanesco dialect the vocative case appears as a regular truncation immediately after the stress.Compare
with
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! | Marco el vien qua / varda Marco! |
| Vocative | Marìa vien qua! / varda, Marìa! | Marco vien qua! / varda, Marco! |
Predicative constructions:
| Case | Fem. proper name | Masc. proper name and other nouns |
| Pred. | so' mi ła Marìa | so' mi Marco / so' tornà maestra |
| Vocative | so' mi Marìa! | so' mi, Marco! / so' tornà, maestra! |
Arabic
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 placed before a noun inflected in the nominative case. In English translations, it is often translated literally as O instead of being omitted. A longer form used in Classical Arabic is أيّها ', أيّتها ', 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 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 attached to the end of the address word. For example, 日记 "diary" becomes 日记啊.
Certain specialized vocative morphemes also exist, albeit with limited applicabilities. For instance, the Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese, to express strong feelings to someone, a neutral tone suffix -ei may be attached to certain address words. It is most commonly applied to the word 孙子, to form sūnzei, meaning approximately "Hey you nasty one!". Another example is 小子, resulting in xiǎozei "Hey kiddo!".
Japanese
The vocative case is present in Japanese as the particle よ. 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! |
| jp:万国の労働者よ、団結せよ! | Workers of the world, unite! |
| 少年よ、神話になれ！ | 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:
In the second phrase, both the adjective and the noun are declined. The personal pronouns are also used in the vocative case. Shen "you" and tkven "you" 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 아 if the name ends in a consonant and 야 if the name ends with a vowel:In formal Korean, the marker 여 or 이여 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 시 is inserted in between the 이 and 여.
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 |
| ' 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? |
| A szerelem csodaszép. Love is wonderful. | Látod, szerelem, mit tettél! O Love, look what you have done! |
| ' Isten szerelmére! For the love of God! | Isten, áldd meg a magyart! God, bless the Hungarians! |
With certain words such as barát, hölgy, úr, vocation is, in addition to the zero article, always marked by the first person possessive:
| 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, friend? |
Words like testvér 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! dear brothers ! |
| apához megyek. I'm going to dad. | Apám, hogy vagy? / Apa, hogy vagy? Dad, how are you? |
The second-person pronoun can be used to emphasize a vocation when appropriate: Hát miért nem adtad oda neki, te bolond?, Te Karcsi, nem láttad a szemüvegem?, Lógtok ezért még, ti gazemberek., etc.