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 (, , , and numerals) of that noun. 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".

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 , 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.

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Indo-European languages

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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:

! style="width: 12em">Language ! style="width: 12em"	Nominative ! style="width: 12em"	Vocative
	Proto-Indo-European	*wl̩kʷ-o-s	*wl̩kʷ-e
	[[Sanskrit]]	वृकः ()	वृक ()
	Ancient Greek]]	λύκ-ο-ς ()	λύκ-ε ()
	[[Latin]]	lup-u-s	lup-e
	Lithuanian	vilk-a-s	vilk-e
	Old Church Slavonic	вльк-ъ ()	вльч-е ()

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 lupu s and the vocative case is lupe, but the accusative case is lupu m. 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.

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Baltic languages

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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".

! rowspan="2" style="width: 8em" >'''Masculine nouns''' ! rowspan="2" style="width: 8em"	Nominative ! colspan="2" style="width: 8em"	Vocative ! rowspan="2" style="width: 8em"	Translation ! rowspan="2"	Feminine nouns ! rowspan="2"	Nominative ! colspan="2"	Vocative ! rowspan="2"	Translation
>o-stems	vilkas	vilke!		wolf	a-stems	tautà sg.	taũta!		people
	jo-stems	vėjas	vėjau!	Old Lith. vėje!	wind	e-stems	katė	kate!		cat
	ijo-stems	gaidys	gaidy!		rooster	i-stems	avis	avie!		sheep
	a-stems	viršilà	viršìla!		sergeant-major	r-stems	duktė	dukterie!	dukter!	daughter
	e-stems	dėdė	dėde!		uncle	irregular	marti	marti/marčia!		daughter-in-law
	i-stems	vagis	vagie!		thief	proper names	Dalià	Dãlia!
	u-stems	sūnus	sūnau!		son	diminutives	sesutė	sesut(e)!		little sister
	n-stems	vanduo	vandenie!	vanden!	water
	'''proper names'''	Jonas	Jonai!	Old Lith. Jone!	John
	'''diminutives'''	sūnelis	sūneli!		little son

Some nouns of the e- and a- stems declensions (both proper ones and not) are stressed differently: "aikš tė": " aikšte!" ( square); "tau ta": " 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.

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Celtic languages

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Goidelic languages

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Irish The vocative case in Irish language 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 (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 case and feminine vocative expressions resemble the nominative case.

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!)

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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):

!Nominative case !Vocative case
	Caitrìona	'''a Ch'''aitrìona
	Dòmhnall	'''a Dh'''òmhna'''i'''ll
	Màiri	'''a Mh'''àiri
	Seumas	'''a Sh'''euma'''i'''s
	Ùna	Ùna
	cù	'''a ch'''oin
	bean	'''a bh'''ean
	duine	'''a dh'''uine

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

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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".

!Nominative case !Vocative case
	Juan	'''y Y'''uan
	Donal	'''y Gh'''onal
	Moirrey	'''y V'''oirrey
	Catreeney	'''y Ch'''atreeney
	John	John

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

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Brythonic languages

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Welsh Welsh language 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 ("dear friends") 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 plant ) and signage such as one right show mutation of myfyrwyr to draw attention to the importance of the notice.

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Germanic languages

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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 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. The use of O may be considered a form of clitic and should not be confused with the interjection oh. The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003), , s. 5.197. However, as the Oxford English Dictionary points out, "O" and "oh" were originally used interchangeably.

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 (the vocative comma). 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.

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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:

Do es der Päul — Päul, kumm ens erövver!	There is Paul. Paul, come over please!
Och do leeven Kaffepott, do bes jo am dröppe!	O my dear coffee pot, you are dripping!
„Pääde, jooht loufe!“ Un di Pääde jonn loufe.	"Horses, run away!" And the horses are running away.

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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]] and vinur]] 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:

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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).

Madeleine Halmøy (2025). 9783110339635, Walter de Gruyter GmbH. ISBN 9783110339635

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.

kjær venn	kjær e venn	dear friend
vis mann	vis e mann	wise man
liten katt	lille katt	little cat

In several Norwegian dialects, north of an isogloss running from Oslo to Bergen, in argument position are associated with proprial articles, e.g. gendered such as han or hun , which either precede or follow the noun in question. This is not the case when in vocative constructions.

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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. 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 (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.Holton, David, Irene Philippaki-Warburton, and Peter A. Mackridge, Greek: A Comprehensive Grammar of the Modern Language (Routledge, London and New York:1997), pp. 49–50

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Iranian languages

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Kurdish

Kurdish language 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 Central Kurdish it is created by adding the suffix of at the end of names.

!colspan="2">Kurmanji !colspan="2"	Jafi
!Name !Vocative !Name !Vocative
	Sedad (m)	Sedo
	Wedad (m)	Wedo
	Baran (m)	Baro
	Nazdar (f)	Nazê
	Gulistan (f)	Gulê
	Berfîn (f)	Berfê

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

! Name ! Vocative
	Nazdar (f)	Lê Nazê!
	Diyar (m)	Lo Diyar!

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Indo-Aryan languages

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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 आ and for all nouns in their plural forms the vocative case is always distinct from the nominative case.

Michael C. Shapiro (1989). 9788120804753, Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 9788120804753

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 .

Yamuna Kachru (2025). 902723812X, John Benjamins Publishing Company. 902723812X

The vocative case has many similarities with the oblique case in Hindustani.

चिड़िया		चिड़ियाँ	चिड़ियों	bird

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Sanskrit

In Sanskrit, the vocative (सम्बोधन विभक्ति ) has the same form as the nominative except 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:

हे बालाः

हे लताः

हे फलानि

The vocative form is the same as the nominative except in the singular.

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Slavic languages

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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.

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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.

italic=no	italic=no
italic=no	italic=no
italic=no	italic=no

More-recent names and foreign names may have a vocative form but it is rarely used (italic=no, instead of simply italic=no Richard, sounds unusual or humorous to native speakers).

Vocative phrases like italic=no (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:

God	italic=no	italic=no
Lord	italic=no	italic=no
Jesus Christ	italic=no	italic=no italic=no
comrade	italic=no	italic=no
priest	italic=no	italic=no
frog	italic=no	italic=no
fool	italic=no	italic=no

Vocative case forms also normally exist for female given names:

italic=no	italic=no
italic=no	italic=no
italic=no	italic=no
italic=no	italic=no

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

Grandmother	italic=no	italic=no
Mom	italic=no Мама	italic=no italic=no
Aunt	italic=no	italic=no
Sister	italic=no	italic=no

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Czech

In Czech language, the vocative (vokativ, or 5. pád – ) usually differs from the nominative in masculine and feminine nouns in the singular.

![[Nominative case]] !Vocative case !Gloss
! colspan=3 Feminine
	paní Eva	paní Ev'''o'''!
	knížka	knížk'''o'''!
	Marie	Marie!
>nová píseň	nová písn'''i'''!
! colspan=3 Masculine
	pan	pan'''e''' profesor'''e'''!
	Ježíš	Ježíš'''i'''!
	Marek	Mark'''u'''!
>předseda	předsed'''o'''!
>pan žalobce	pan'''e''' žalobce!
>blbec	blbč'''e'''!
	Jiří	Jiří!
	pan Dobrý	pan'''e''' Dobrý!
! colspan=3 Neuter
	moje rodné město	moje rodné město!
	jitřní moře	jitřní moře!
	otcovo obydlí	otcovo obydlí!

In older common Czech (19th century), vocative form was sometimes replaced by nominative form in case of female names (Lojzka, dej pokoj!) and in case of male nouns past a title (pane učitel!, pane továrník!, pane Novák!). This phenomenon was caused mainly by the German influence, and almost disappeared from the modern Czech. It can be felt as rude, discourteous or uncultivated, or as familiar, and is associated also with Slovakian influence (from the Czechoslovak Army) or Russian. In informal speech, it is common (but grammatically incorrect) to use the male surname (see also Czech name) in the nominative to address men: pane Novák! instead of pane Nováku! (Female surnames are , and their nominative and vocative have the same form: see Czech declension.) Using the vocative is strongly recommended in official and written styles.

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Polish

In Polish language, the vocative (wołacz) is formed with feminine nouns usually taking -o except those that end in -sia, -cia, -nia, and -dzia, which take -u, and those that end in -ść, which take -i. Masculine nouns generally follow the complex pattern of the locative case, with the exception of a handful of words such as Bóg → Boże]] , ojciec → ojcze]] and chłopiec → chłopcze]] . Neuter nouns and all plural nouns have the same form in the nominative and the vocative:

{| class="wikitable"

! [[Nominative case]]
! Vocative case
! Gloss
|-
! colspan=3 | Feminine
|-
|Pani Ewa
|Pani Ew'''o'''!
|
|-
|Ewusia
|Ewusi'''u'''!
|
     

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