19.02.24: Addressing people directly

Look at these extracts from the dialogue in the earlier post and note the difference in the spelling of Mārcus and Quīntus:

[i] Nōmen mihi est Mārcus. Nōmen mihi est Quīntus.

[ii] Valē, Mārce! Cūrā ut valeās, Quīnte!

When males whose names end in -us, and there are many of them, are addressed directly, in the same way we would say ‘Hello, John!’, ‘See you later, David!’ the ending of their names changes from -us to -e:

• Mārcus > Salvē, Marce!
• Quīntus > Valē, Quīnte!

Male names ending in -ius, for example, Iūlius, remove the -ius and add -ī:

• Cūrā ut valeās, Iulī!

The grammatical term for this is the vocative case, and we will look at what the term ‘case’ means in a later post, but it does not occur with any male names that do not end in –(i)us and does not occur with any female names at all: Nōmen mihi est Iūlia > Salvē, Iūlia (no change).

It is also common to see the single letter word ō (oh) before the name as an indicator that the person is being addressed directly:

Salvē, ō Mārce! An English equivalent would be ‘Hi there, Mark!”

In Shakespeare's play 'Julius Caesar', the titular character, as he receives a final stab from Brutus, exclaims "Et tu, Brute?" (Even you, Brutus?) The chances that Caesar actually said that are slim, but it's a good way of remembering the vocative case.