EC: 72 Addressing: Vocative Case

Finally, now it’s the time to introduce the last case: the vocative case (just V for short). This is the last case to be introduced, since it’s the least used case.

It’s mostly used when you’re calling or addressing someone. There are no specific forms in the plural – vocative is equal to the nominative case in plural. The endings in singular are:

noun type (N)	V
nouns in -a (≈ fem.)	-a → -o -ica → -ice (or: no change)
neuter nouns (≈ in -o, -e)	= N
masc. nouns not in -a	add -e (some -u)
fem. not in -a (e.g. noć)	add -i

For people, this case is usually used when you are addressing someone using his or her name or title, often with imperatives or polite expressions, such as:

Hvala Vam, profesore. Thank you, professor.

Molim Vas, dođite, doktore. Please, come here, doctor.

Izvolite, gospodine. Here you are, mister.

Dobar dan, gospođo. Good afternoon, madam.

With personal names, it’s increasingly common to use just nominative instead of vocative. This holds especially for names ending in -a:

Hvala ti, Ana. Thank you, Ana.

The vocative for female names is conserved only in set expressions, e.g. in a Catholic prayer:

Zdravo, Marijo... Hail Mary,...

For masculine names ending in a vowel (regardless whether they behave as if ending in -a or not) there’s no change:

Dođi, Kruno. Come here, Kruno.

Dođi, Marko. Come here, Marko.

The ending -e for masculine nouns ending in consonant causes consonant shift k → č, g → ž, h → š:

čovjek man, human → čovječe
bog god → bože
vrag devil → vraže

If a masc. noun ends in a Croatian-specific consonant, it gets -u in vocative:

kralj king → kralju
muž husband → mužu
prijatelj friend (m) → prijatelju

However, if a masc. noun ends in c, it gets -e, and c changes to č:

princ prince → prinče

For nouns ending in -ica, the vocative case is -ice:

kraljica queen → kraljice
prijateljica friend (f) → prijateljice

This usually applies to few female and male names that end in -ica, like Anica (f) and Ivica (m):

Hvala ti, Anice. Thank you, Anica.

Izvoli, Ivice. Here you are, Ivica.

As with other cases, to help you recognize vocatives while you’re learning them, they will be highlighted dark blue , if you place your mouse over an example sentence – or touch it, if you use a touchscreen, as for the other cases.

The are no special vocative forms for adjectives, except that masculine singular gets an -i (except, of course, for possessives like moj and so on, which never have an -i).

In Croatian, adjectives normally precede nouns (moj prijatelj) but it’s common in vocatives to invert the order (prijatelju moj), and it’s especially common in songs and poetry in general; you will very often hear:

ljubavi moja o, my love

The vocative case is always used in addressing in letters and mail messages. They usually have the following formula:

dragi
poštovani

gospodine (+ last name)
gospođo (+ last name)
name in V

Words gospodin mister and gospođa madam are often shortened:

gospodin mister = g. / gosp.
gospođa madam = gđa

There’s one more word: gospođica miss, sometimes shortened to gđica. Abbreviations gđa and gđica are declined as nouns, that is V = gđo, A = gđu, etc. There’s no period (.) after gđa and gđica.

For example, a letter could start with one of the following:

Dragi Ivane,...

Poštovana gospođo Jurić,...

Poštovani g. Horvat,...

Poštovana gđo Jurić,...

These three words are formal. They are basically used only when you directly address someone, either in writing, or in a formal situation; therefore, they are much less often used than English counterparts.

For instance, you will often read in English language newspapers and books sentences like we talked to Mr. Smith... and so on. You will never see such use of such formal words in Croatian; people will be referred to using only their last name or full name; however, if someone holds an office or position (president, minister...) it will be used.

Since words like gospodin are formal, children never use them. While English language picture books can be about Mr. Bear, Mr. Tiger and so on, you will never see it in Croatian: such books will be adapted as Big Bear, My Dear Tiger, etc. Even when adults talk to children about other adults, they won’t usually use words like gospodin.

Children do use specific words addressing grown-ups that are not part of their family:

Titles used by children
teta	‘madam’
striček (NW, including Zagreb) barba (coast, except Dubrovnik) dundo (Dubrovnik) čiko (A -u) (elsewhere) striko (A -u) (elsewhere)	‘mister’

The words are the same as words for relatives in family, and words vary by region.

Children will usually use the title + first name, e.g. they will call their kindergarten teacher teta Ana; adults will refer to her in the same way, when talking to their children.

Remember: Formal words gospodin and gospođa are used only when grown-ups directly address someone, either in speech or writing. They aren’t used when talking about someone.

Most familiar terms of relatives nowadays don’t have special vocative forms and use nominatives:

mama Mom
tata Dad

teta aunt
baka grandmother

The following terms have vocative forms:

otac (oc-) father → oče
majka mother → majko

Finally, it’s custom to end a letter or mail message with one of:

S poštovanjem,

Pozdrav,

Lijep pozdrav,

Followed by the full name (and function) of the sender. The line Lijep pozdrav is getting increasingly common, and colloquially abbreviated as lp or LP.

↓ Examples (click to show)

Mladen Grdović is a singer and writer of popular (and often cheesy) songs from Zadar, who quickly gained popularity in 1990’s with a series of easy-listening songs in tradition of Dalmatian pop. This song, Samo ti, Dalmacijo Only You, O Dalmatia is one of his early hits; he performed it in a duet with his relative and frequent collaborator Josip Matešić, nicknamed Bepo.

Its title already contains a vocative form of Dalmacija Dalmatia (note the song uses the standard stress, but this word has the ‘western’ stress; the stress in Zadar is a bit mixed). The song has a couple of Ikavian forms, but it’s overall close to standard.

As in most of his other songs, the structure is simple: after a short introduction, there’s a catchy sing-along chorus, repeating many times:

Za tebe smo ariju pisali, dušo	We wrote a song for you, o dear {m/mixed}
sva blaga [što Bog ti je darovao]	All treasures [that were given to you by God]
iz kamena nama si procvalaprocvasti past-f, ružo	Out of stone you’ve blossomed for us, o rose {to f}
samo ti, samo ti, samo ti, Dalmacijo	Only you, only you, only you, o Dalmatia

Almost each line ends with a vocative. The word duša literally means soul, but it’s used as a term of endearment in vocative, roughtly corresponding to Englisg dear. The word arija is basically what this song is – a kind of sweetened song, as if from an opera.

The second line has a relative clause starting with što. The third line contains an inchoative verb procvasti (procvate) start blossoming (another verb with the same meaning is procvjetati; this one is a bit more poetic). The line is true: in Dalmatia, flowers often grow on rocks, and much of Dalmatia is a rocky, rugged landscape.

In the next verse, they raise the level even higher, by squeezing in a part of a Christian prayer:

O more, more ti pričaj mi o ljubavi	O sea, sea, tell me about love
o kraju [di su moji najdražidrag]	about the land [where my dearest are]
na vike vikova, živit će Dalmacija	For ages and ages, Dalmatia will live
u ime Oca, Sina i Duha Svetoga	In the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit
(Mladen Grdović & Marina Anđelković)

The words more sea and ti you have the same form in N and V so my labelling above is mostly how I feel about their use.

In the second line, there’s noun kraj which is something like land, country, which doesn’t have a real English counterpart: it’s a country or a part of it which is somehow connected, has similar characteristics. For most people, rodni kraj is the part of the country where they grew up and the part they are familiar with since childhood. It can be a city and its surroundings, a couple of villages, and island, and so on. Then, there’s a clause headed by the word di, an Ikavian and wider colloquial variant of the word gdje where.

The 3rd line has the word vik, Ikavian for vijek (N-pl vjekovi) century, age. It’s another word for century (more common in Bosnia); it often means age (Middle Ages is srednji vijek in Croatian) but only ages longer than a century. Somewhat archaic phrase na vijeke vjekova means something for ages of ages, basically forever. The word živit is the Ikavian version of inf živjeti live.

The last line is a part of the well-known Christian prayer; here the order noun-adjective is reversed for rhythmic reasons, but it also gives a more formal and archaic feeling.

You can watch it on YouTube™.

This is the original performance on the festival Melodije hrvatskog Jadrana Melodies of Croatian Adriatic (Grdović is the guy in a white suit) from 1996:

This song might be a bit over the top for you, but it should be understood in its context. It was first performed in Split, the largest city in Dalmatia (and the second largest in Croatia) a year after the 1991-95 war; in the war, Dalmatia was almost cut off from the rest of Croatia (the only road led over the damaged Pag bridge and a ferry line connecting the island of Pag to the mainland; both were occasionally closed.) Tourism, the main source of income in Dalmatia for many, was reduced to zero. Power outages were common. Recovery was slow (some parts of Croatia basically never recovered).

Also, there’s a long tradition of local pride in Dalmatia, the most southern historical province of Croatia, likely much more known in the world than Croatia – Dalmatia is actually mentioned in the Bible – despite it having less than a million inhabitants. Much before this song, there were other songs which could be possible anthems for Dalmatia. Dalmatia has had a specific culture for centuries, strong cultural ties to Venice (it was ruled as a Venetian colony for 4 centuries) and later to generally Italy – the city of Zadar had especially strong ties – explaining why this song sounds like from an Italian opera.

Grdović continued to write similar songs, such as Dalmatinac Dalmatian, with chorus I’m Dalmatian / This is my home before his songs became quite trivial, and he started to be more known for arrests, car crashes and other incidents under the influence of a lot of alcohol.

Dalmatia is more traditional and much more Catholic (as you can see in this song) than the superficially similar parts of the Northern Croatian Adriatic (i.e. the Rijeka area and Istria). There are striking cultural differences between these two parts of the Croatian coast – for example, a song about Istria including a Christian prayer is virtually unthinkable. The most popular singer from Rijeka is Damir Urban, a shaved-head rocker who often performs barefoot and in black dresses; compare it to Grdović’s sound and look. More differences will be explained in later chapters.

There’s one more interesting detail: Grdović, his relative Matešić, very successful Tomislav Ivčić, his half-brother Đani Maršan and an unusual number of various singers come from a neigborhood of Zadar called Arbanasi. The word Arbanas is an archaic word for Albanian: that neighborhood is a former village where people from the area between the Lake Skadar and the sea were settled in the early 18th century. Most settlers spoke Albanian; even today, some older people in Arbanasi speak a particular Albanian dialect (with a lot of Croatian, Venetian and Italian words, of course), although most have assimilated long ago (all of them consider themselves Croats).

↓ Exercise (click to show)

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72 Addressing: Vocative Case

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