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The Serbian Vocative Case: Endings and Usage
(PDF version)
The vocative case endings for the three possible classes
of Serbian nouns are given in Table 1 below.
Table 1: The vocative case of Serbian nouns
|
|
Class I
(masculine: ending in a consonant in nominative) |
Class I
(neuter: ending in –o
or –e in
nominative) |
Class II
(feminine: ending in -a
in nominative) |
Class III
(feminine: ending in a consonant in nominative) |
|
SINGULAR
|
‘brother’
|
'(badly behaved) child’
|
‘woman’
|
‘love’
|
| Vocative |
brat-e
|
derište-o
|
žen-o
|
ljubav-i
|
|
PLURAL |
‘boys’
|
'children’
|
“women”
|
‘loves’
|
| Vocative |
dečac–i
|
derište-a
|
žen-e
|
ljubav-i
|
When to use the vocative case?
The name vocative comes from the Latin verb
vocare which means ‘to call, to voice’. Thus, the
vocative case is used when you want to address or call a
person (or a thing – metaphorically speaking).
Some phonological variations in vocative endings
For Class I masculine nouns, the vocative ends in
–e in singular, and –i
in plural (which is equivalent to the nominative plural).
- Please note that nouns ending in the following
consonants: k, g, h undergo palatalization
(or consonant ‘softening’) before the vocative
ending –e. Some
examples:
|
nominative singular: |
čovek ‘man’ |
drug ‘comrade’
|
duh ‘spirit’ |
|
vocative singular:
|
čoveče ‘hey
man’ |
druže ‘hey
comrade’ |
duše ‘hey
spirit’ |
However, this rule doesn’t apply to foreign proper
names. Examples:
|
nominative singular: |
Dik ‘Dick’ |
Greg ‘Greg’ |
Bah ‘Bach’ |
|
vocative singular:
|
Dik ‘Dick’ |
Greg ‘Greg’ |
Bah ‘Bach’ |
- The nouns ending in the following consonants:
č, ć, đ, lj, nj, š, ž,
have their singular vocative endings in –u,
not –e. Some
examples:
|
mladić-u
‘young man’ |
muž-u
‘husband’ |
prijatelj-u
‘friend’ |
This rule doesn’t apply to proper male names, like:
Miloš-e,
Uroš-e.
- The nouns ending in –r
can have either endings –e
or –u. Examples:
|
lekar-e,
lekar-u
‘doctor’ |
poštar-e, poštar-u
‘mailman’ |
|
- And finally, another exceptional noun is
brat ‘brother’,
which has an irregular vocative ending –o
in plural:
brat-e
vs. brać-o ‘brothers’.
- Most class I neuter nouns have both singular and
plural vocative endings equal to their nominatives:
-o or -e
in singular (e.g.
sel-o ‘village’,
polje ‘field’) and –a
in the plural (e.g.
sel-a
‘villages’, polja ‘fileds’).
However, the exception to this rule arises with
neuter nouns that denote young persons or animals.
Their singular vocative ending is regular: either –o
or –e, but their
plural vocative ending is either –i,
just like Class I masculine nouns, or –ad.
With the –ad ending,
these nouns behave like collective nouns.
Table 2: Vocative endings of neuter nouns denoting young
persons or animals
|
vocative singular
|
momče
‘young lad’ |
unuče
‘grandchild’ |
pile
‘chick’ |
tele
‘calf’ |
|
vocative plural -i:
|
momčići
‘young lads’ |
unučići
‘grandchildren’ |
pilići
‘chicks’ |
teliići
‘calves’ |
|
vocative plural -ad:
|
momčad
‘young lads’ |
unučad
‘grandchildren’ |
pilad
‘chicks’ |
telad
‘calves’ |
- The following neuter nouns have the vocative plural
ending in –o, just
like feminine singular nouns:
|
vocative singular
|
dete ‘child’
|
unuče ‘grandchild’ |
pile ‘chick’ |
tele ‘calf’ |
|
vocative plural -o:
|
deco ‘children’ |
unučići ‘grandchildren’ |
pilići ‘chicks’ |
teliići ‘calves’ |
- Most Class II feminine nouns have the
vocative singular ending in –o,
as indicated above.
This includes two-syllable proper names (both female
and male) which have a long-rising accent on the
first syllable in the nominative singular: In the
examples below, I indicated a long-rising accent with
the capital letters. In the vocative, the first vowel
changes to a long-falling accent.
|
nominative singular : |
NAda, MIca (female names) |
JOva, PEra (male names) |
|
vocative singular:
|
Miro, Mico |
Jovo, Pero |
- Most other proper names (both female and
male) have the vocative ending in –a,
just like the nominative:
female names: Larisa,
Marija, Vera
male names: Nikola,
Luka
However, proper names ending in –ica
that are three or more syllables long, have the
vocative ending in –e,
not –a or –o.
|
nominative singular: |
Marica (female
name) |
Radojica (male name) |
|
vocative singular:
|
Marice |
Radojice |
- And finally, male denoting common nouns that
belong to this feminine class have either ending in –a
(just like the nominative ending) or –o:
Examples:
|
mušterij-a,
mušterij-o ‘customer’ |
sudij-a, sudij-o
‘judge’ |
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