The vocative case
In proto-Indo-European, Sanskrit, and Latin, nouns were divided into declensions, each having a distinctive set of endings indicating whether the noun was the subject, direct object, indirect object, or possessive, and also had a case that was used only when speaking to someone. Poetically, one could also address the sun, or Love, a “little mousie” or anything else.
When I lived in Greece, I frequently used the vocative case. If a man’s name was Yorgos, and you wanted to call to him, you would say Yorgay, the vocative form of one set of declensions.
Modern languages using the vocative are Greek, Albanian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, Czech, Croatian, Serbian, Ukranian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Scottish Gaelic and Irish. Only Romanian preserves it among the Romance languages. Among non- Romance languages, it exists in Fala and Georgian.
In English, we use other ways of indicating that we are addressing someone. The form “sir” or “madam” is usually used only as a form of address, and we sometimes say, “Hey George!” to indicate that we are calling to him. Otherwise, we just say, “George!”
Exercise: How do your students indicate they are addressing someone? Do any of them speak a language which has the vocative case? Have them give examples of how it is used.
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