Vocative case
The vocative case is used for a noun that identifies a person being addressed or occasionally for the determiners 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 Classical Greek. Many modern Indo-European languages have lost the vocative case, but others retain it, including the Baltic languages, some Celtic languages and most Slavic languages. Some linguists, such as Albert Thumb,:de:Albert Thumb| 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.
Indo-European languages
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: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 lupus and the vocative case is lupe, but the accusative case is lupum. The asterisks before the Proto-Indo-European words means that they are theoretical reconstructions and are not attested in a written source. The symbol ◌̩ indicates a consonant serving as a vowel. 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.
Baltic languages
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".
Some nouns of the e- and a- stems declensions are stressed differently: "aikštė": "aikšte!" ; "tauta": "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 -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 -o stem and diminutives with the suffixes -elis, -ėlis have an alternative vocative singular form characterized by a zero ending : Adõm "Adam!" in addition to Adõmai, Mýkol "Michael!" in addition to Mýkolai, vaikẽl "kid!" in addition to vaikẽli, etc.
Celtic languages
Goidelic languages
Irish
The vocative case in Irish operates in a similar fashion to Scottish Gaelic. The principal marker is the vocative particle a, which causes lenition of the initial letter.In the singular there is no special form, except for first declension nouns. These are masculine nouns that end in a broad consonant, which is made slender to build the singular vocative. Adjectives are also lenited. In many cases this means that masculine vocative expressions resemble the genitive and feminine vocative expressions resemble the nominative.
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 or the dative plural
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.In addition, masculine nouns are slenderized if possible This also changes the pronunciation of the word.
Also, the particle a is placed before the noun unless it begins with a vowel. Examples of the use of the vocative personal names :
The name "Hamish" is just the English spelling of "Sheumais", and thus is actually a Gaelic vocative. Likewise, the name "Vairi" is an English spelling of "Mhàiri," the vocative for Màiri.
Manx
The basic pattern is similar to Irish and Scottish. The vocative is confined to personal names, in which it is common. Foreign names 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".The name "Voirrey" is actually the Manx vocative of "Moirrey".
Brythonic languages
Welsh
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 in which cyfeillion has been lenited. It is often used to draw attention to at public notices orally and written – teachers will say "Blant" and signage such as one right show mutation of "myfyrwyr" to draw attention to the importance of the notice.Germanic languages
English
Modern English lacks a vocative case. 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. 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.
Historically, and in poetic or rhetorical speech, vocative phrases in English were prefaced by the word O, as is often seen in the King James Version of the Bible: "O ye of little faith". Another example is the recurrent use of the phrase "O 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. However, as the Oxford English Dictionary points out, "O" and "oh" were originally used interchangeably. With the advent of "oh" as a written interjection, however, "O" is the preferred modern spelling in vocative phrases.
See also Apostrophe.
German dialects
In some German dialects, like the Ripuarian dialect of Cologne, it is common to use the article before a person's name. In the vocative phrase then the article is, as in Venetian, 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 ! |
| Och do leeven Kaffepott, do bes jo am dröppe! | O dear coffee pot, you are dripping! |
| "Pääde, jooht loufe!" Un di Pääde jonn loufe. | "Horses, run away!" And the horses are running away. |
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 ', 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 :
| Nominative | Jesús elskar þig. | Jesus loves you. |
| Vocative | Ó Jesú, frelsari okkar. | O Jesus, our saviour. |
The native words ' and ' 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:
| Kær vinur er gulli betri. | A dear friend is better than gold. | strong adjective, full noun |
| Kæri vin''', segðu mér nú sögu. | Dear friend, tell me a story. | weak adjective, shortened noun |
Norwegian
Nouns in Norwegian are not inflected for the vocative case, but adjectives qualifying those nouns are; adjectives qualifying vocative nouns are inflected for the definite singular. This phenomenon can be more easily observed with adjectives that inflect for plural and definite differently, e.g. being lille when definite, but små when plural.| Nominative | Vocative | English translation |
| kjær venn | kjære venn | dear friend |
| vis mann | vise mann | wise man |
| liten katt | lille katt | little cat |
This can also be shown in interjections with adjectives, especially profanities, like. Note that despite not being inflected or preceded by a definite article, the qualifying adjective,, is still inflected as if qualifying a definite noun.
In several Norwegian dialects, proper nouns referring to persons are commonly preceeded by a personal pronoun he or she in nominative, but not in vocative. This is similar to the use and drop of the definite article in the dialects of e.g. Cologne and Venezia, as described above.
Trøndersk examples:
| Dær e ‘n Paul. Paul, kom hit! | There is Paul. Paul, come over here! |
| Dær e ho Maria. Maria, kom hit! | There is Maria. Maria, come over here! |
Greek
In Ancient Greek, the vocative case is usually identical to the nominative case, with the exception of masculine second-declension nouns and third-declension nouns.Second-declension masculine 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 ; otherwise, the stem serves as the vocative. 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: "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, which have the same nominative and vocative forms instead.
Indo-Iranian languages
Kurdish
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 Sorani it is created by adding the suffix of -i at the end of names.Instead of the vocative case, forms of address may be created by using the grammatical particles lê and lo :
Sanskrit
In Sanskrit, the vocative has the same form as the nominative except in the singular. In vowel-stem nouns, if there is a –ḥ in the nominative, it is omitted and the stem vowel may be altered: –ā and –ĭ become –e, –ŭ becomes –o, –ī and –ū become short and –ṛ becomes –ar. Consonant-stem nouns have no ending in the vocative:| Noun | Singular | Dual | Plural |
| बाल | हे बाल he bāla | हे बालौ he bālau | हे बालाः he bālāḥ |
| लता | हे लते he late | हे लते he late | हे लताः he latāḥ |
| फलम् | हे फलम् he phalam | हे फले he phale | हे फलानि he phalāni |
The vocative form is the same as the nominative except in the masculine and feminine singular.
Slavic languages
Bulgarian
Unlike other Slavic languages except Macedonian, Bulgarian has lost case marking for nouns. However, Bulgarian preserves vocative forms. Traditional male names usually have a vocative ending.| Nominative | Vocative |
| Петър Petar | Петре Petre |
| Тодор Todor | Тодоре Todore |
| Иван Ivan | Иване Ivane |
More-recent names and foreign names may have a vocative form but it is rarely used.
Vocative phrases like господин министре 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:
| English word | Nominative | Vocative |
| God | Бог Bog | Боже Bozhe |
| Lord | Господ Gospod | Господи Gospodi |
| Jesus Christ | Исус Христос Isus Hristos | Исусе Христе Isuse Hriste |
| comrade | другар drugar | другарю drugaryu |
| priest | поп pop | попе pope |
| frog | жаба zhaba | жабо zhabo |
| fool | глупак glupak | глупако glupako |
Vocative case forms also normally exist for female given names:
| Nominative | Vocative |
| Елена Elena | Елено Eleno |
| Пена Pena | Пено Peno |
| Елица Elitsa | Елице Elitse |
| Радка Radka | Радке Radke |
Except for forms that end in -е, they are considered rude and are normally avoided. For female kinship terms, the vocative is always used:
| English word | Nominative | Vocative |
| Grandmother | Баба Baba | Бабо Babo |
| Mom | Майка Mayka Мама Mama | Майко Mayko Мамо Mamo |
| Aunt | Леля Lelya | Лельо Lelyo |
| Sister | Сестра Sestra | Сестро Sestro |
Czech
In Czech, the vocative usually differs from the nominative in masculine and feminine nouns in the singular.In older common Czech, vocative form was sometimes replaced by nominative form in case of female names and in case of male nouns past a title. 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 or Russian. In informal speech, it is common to use the male surname in the nominative to address men: pane Novák! instead of pane Nováku! Using the vocative is strongly recommended in official and written styles.
Polish
In Polish, the vocative 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 , and . Neuter nouns and all plural nouns have the same form in the nominative and the vocative:The latter form of the vocative of człowiek is now considered poetical.
The nominative is increasingly used instead of the vocative to address people with their proper names. In other contexts the vocative remains prevalent. It is used:
- To address an individual with the function, title, other attribute, family role
- *Panie doktorze, Panie prezesie!
- *Przybywasz za późno, pływaku
- *synu, mamo, tato
- After adjectives, demonstrative pronouns and possessive pronouns
- *Nie rozumiesz mnie, moja droga Basiu!
- To address an individual in an offensive or condescending manner:
- *Zamknij się, pajacu!
- *Co się gapisz, idioto?
- *Nie znasz się, baranie, to nie pisz!
- *Spadaj, wieśniaku!
- After "Ty"
- *Ty kłamczuchu!
- Set expressions:
- * Matko!, Boże!, chłopie
Russian
Historic vocative
The historic Slavic vocative has been lost in Russian and is now used only in archaic expressions. Several of them, mostly of religious origin, are common in colloquial Russian: "Боже!" and "Боже мой!", and "Господи!", which can also be expressed as "Господи Иисусе!". The vocative is also used in prayers: "Отче наш!". Such expressions are used to express strong emotions, and are often combined. More examples of the historic vocative can be found in other Biblical quotes that are sometimes used as proverbs: "Врачу, исцелися сам". Vocative forms are also used in modern Church Slavonic. The patriarch and bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church are addressed as "владыко". In the latter case, the vocative is often also incorrectly used for the nominative to refer to bishops and patriarchs.New vocative
In modern colloquial Russian, given names and a small family of terms often take a special "shortened" form that some linguists consider to be a re-emerging vocative case. It is used only for given names and nouns that end in -a and -я, which are sometimes dropped in the vocative form: "Лен, где ты?". It is basically equivalent to "Лена, где ты?" but suggests a positive personal and emotional bond between the speaker and the person being addressed. Names that end in -я then acquire a soft sign: "Оль!" = "Оля!". In addition to given names, the form is often used with words like "мама" and "папа", which would be respectively shortened to "мам" and "пап". The plural form is used with words such as "ребят", "девчат".Such usage differs from the historic vocative, which would be "Лено" and is not related.
Serbo-Croatian
The vocative is widely used in Serbo-Croatian. It is surrounded by commas in a sentence as it is part of an unordered sentence array. According to Hrvatska gramatika, vocative singular masculine is sometimes used instead of nominative for the subject or predicate in oral epic poetry. When translating direct speech to indirect speech, vocative has to become a different case, usually nominative or accusative.Nouns tȅtka, ûjna and strîna have vocative equal to nominative when referring to a family member, and the suffix -o in vocative otherwise. Proper masculine nouns ending in -a always have vocative equal to nominative. General masculine nouns and polysyllabic feminine proper names ending in -a can have either. General nouns ending in -ica can have in vocative either -ice or -ico. Proper nouns ending in -ica always have -ice in vocative.
The everyday use of vocative endings for personal proper names varies among native speakers. People in the Zagreb area often use nominative forms as vocative, while others are more likely to apply traditional vocative forms.
Some examples of the vocative case are:
| Nominative | Vocative | Translation | Nominative | Vocative | Translation |
| Miloš m. | Miloše | kralj m. | kralju | king | |
| ugao m. | ugle | corner | gospodar m. | gospodaru | lord |
| čovek or čovjek m. | čoveče or čovječe | human | Kinez m. | Kinezu | Chinese |
| sabor m. | sabore | parliament | Pariz m. | Pariže | Paris |
| ribar m. | ribare or ribaru | fisherman |
For the proper name Marija, the traditional vocative is more common in religious contexts:
| Nominative | Vocative | Translation |
| Marija f. | Marija | |
| Marija f. | Marijo | Mary |
Slovak
Until the end of the 1980s, the existence of a distinct vocative case in Slovak was recognised and taught at schools. Today, the case is no longer considered to exist except for a few archaic examples of the original vocative remaining in religious, literary or ironic contexts:| Nominative | Vocative | Translation | Nominative | Vocative | Translation | Nominative | Vocative | Translation |
| Boh m. | Bože | God | Ježiš m. | Ježišu | Jesus | mama f. | mamo | mother |
| Kristus m. | Kriste | Christ | priateľ m. | priateľu | friend | žena f. | ženo | woman |
| pán m. | pane | lord | brat m. | bratu, bratku | brother | |||
| otec m. | otče | father | syn m. | synu, synku | son | |||
| človek m. | človeče | man, human | ||||||
| chlap m. | chlape | man | ||||||
| chlapec m. | chlapče | boy |
In everyday use, the Czech vocative is sometimes retrofitted to certain words:
| Nominative | Vocative | Translation |
| majster m. | majstre | maestro |
| šéf m. | šéfe | boss |
| švagor m. | švagre | brother-in-law |
Another stamp of vernacular vocative is emerging, presumably under the influence of Hungarian for certain family members or proper names:
| Nominative | Vocative | Translation |
| otec m. | oci | father |
| mama f. | mami | mother |
| babka f. | babi | grandmother, old woman |
| Paľo m. | Pali | Paul, domestic form |
| Zuza f. | Zuzi | Susan, domestic form |
Ukrainian
has retained the vocative case mostly as it was in Proto-Slavic:There are some exceptions:
| Nominative | Vocative | Translation |
| мати maty f. | мамо mamo | mother |
| божа матір boža matir f. | матір божа matir boža | God's Mother |
It is used even for loanwords and foreign names:
| Nominative | Vocative | Translation |
| Джон Džon m. | Джоне Džone | John |
| пан президент pan presydent m. | пане президенте pane presydente | Mr. President |
It is obligatory for all native names:
It is used for patronymics:
| Nominative | Vocative |
| Андрій Васильович Andrij Vasylovyč m. | Андрію Васильовичу Andriju Vasyliovyču |
| Ірина Богданівна Iryna Bohdanivna f. | Ірино Богданівно Iryno Bohdanivno |
Latin
In Latin, the form of the vocative case of a noun is often the same as the nominative. Exceptions include singular second-declension nouns that end in -us in the nominative case. An example would be the famous line from Shakespeare, "Et tu, Brute?" : Brute is the vocative case and Brutus would be the nominative.Nouns that end in -ius end with -ī instead of the expected -ie. Thus, Julius becomes Julī and filius becomes filī. The shortening does not shift the accent so the vocative of Vergilius is Vergilī, with accent on the second syllable even though it is short. Nouns that end in -aius and -eius have vocatives that end in -aī or -eī even though the i in the nominative is consonantal.
First-declension and second-declension adjectives also have distinct vocative forms in the masculine singular if the nominative ends in -us, with the ending -e. Adjectives that end in -ius have vocatives in -ie so the vocative of eximius is eximie.
Nouns and adjectives that end in -eus do not follow the rules above. Meus forms the vocative irregularly as mī or meus, while Christian Deus does not have a distinct vocative and retains the form Deus. "My God!" in Latin is thus mī Deus!, but Jerome's Vulgate consistently used Deus meus as a vocative. Classical Latin did not use a vocative of deus either.
Romance languages
West Iberian languages
drops the article to form the vocative. The vocative is always between commas and, like in many other languages, a particle Ó is commonly used:| Ó Jesus, ajude-nos! | O Jesus, help us! |
| Menino, vem cá! | Boy, come here! |
| Foi ela, Rita, quem me contou. | It was her, Rita, who told me. |
| Não faças isso, amigo. | Don't do that, friend. |
In Extremaduran and Fala, some post-tonical vowels open in vocative forms of nouns, a new development that is unrelated to the Latin vocative case.
Catalan
drops the article to form the vocative.French
Like English, French sometimes uses a particle Ô to mark vocative phrases rather than by change to the form of the noun. A famous example is the title and first line of the Canadian national anthem, O Canada, a vocative phrase addressing Canada.Romanian
The vocative case in Romanian is partly inherited, occasionally causing other morphophonemic changes :- singular masculine/neuter: "-e" as in
- *"om": "omule!",
- *"băiat": "băiete!" or "băiatule!",
- *"văr": "vere!",
- *"Ion": "Ioane!" ;
- singular feminine: "-o" as in
- *"soră": "soro!",
- *"nebună": "nebuno!",
- *"deșteaptă": "deșteapto!",
- *"Ileana": "Ileano!" ;
- plural, all genders: "-lor" as in
- *"frați": "fraților!",
- *"boi": "boilor!",
- *"doamne și domni": "doamnelor și domnilor!".
Venetian
has lost all case endings, like most other Romance languages. However, with feminine proper names the role of the vocative is played by the absence of the determiner: the personal article ła / l' usually precedes feminine names in other situations, even in predicates. Masculine names and other nouns lack articles and so rely on prosody to mark forms of address:| Case | Fem. proper name | Masc. proper name and other nouns |
| Nom./Acc. | ła Marìa ła vien qua / varda ła Marìa! Mary comes here / look at Mary! | Marco el vien qua / varda Marco! Mark comes here / look at Mark! |
| Vocative | Marìa vien qua! / varda, Marìa! Mary come here! / look, Mary! | Marco vien qua! / varda, Marco! Mark come here! / look, Mark! |
Predictive constructions:
| Case | Fem. proper name | Masc. proper name and other nouns |
| Pred. | so' mi ła Marìa I am Mary. | so' mi Marco / so' tornà maestra I am Mark. / I am a teacher again. |
| Vocative | so' mi Marìa! It's me, Mary! | so' mi, Marco! / so' tornà, maestra! It's me, Mark! / I am back, teacher! |
Arabic
Properly speaking, Arabic has only three cases: nominative, accusative and genitive. However, a meaning similar to that conveyed by the vocative case in other languages is indicated by the use of the particle yā placed before a noun inflected in the nominative case. In English translations, it is often translated literally as O instead of being omitted. A longer form used in Classical Arabic is أيّها ayyuhā, أيّتها ayyatuhā, sometimes combined with yā. The particle yā was also used in old Castilian language, because of Arabic influence via Mozarabic immigrations.Mandarin
Mandarin uses and needs no special inflected forms for address. However, special forms and morphemes exist for addressing.Mandarin has several particles that can be attached to the word of address to mark certain special vocative forces, where appropriate. A common one is 啊 a, attached to the end of the address word. For example, 日记 rìjì "diary" becomes 日记啊 rìjì'a.
Certain specialized vocative morphemes also exist, albeit with limited applicabilities. For instance, the Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese, to express strong feelings to someone, a neutral tone suffix -ei may be attached to certain address words. It is most commonly applied to the word 孙子, to form sūnzei, meaning approximately "Hey you nasty one!". Another example is 小子, resulting in xiǎozei "Hey kiddo!".
Georgian
In Georgian, the vocative case is used to address the second-person singular and plural. For word roots that end with a consonant, the vocative case suffix is -o, and for the words that end with a vowel, it is -v like in Old Georgian, but for some words, it is considered archaic. For example, kats- is the root for the word "man". If one addresses someone with the word, it becomes katso.Adjectives are also declined in the vocative case. Just like nouns, consonant final stem adjectives take the suffix -o in the vocative case, and the vowel final stems are not changed:
In the second phrase, both the adjective and the noun are declined. The personal pronouns are also used in the vocative case. Shen "you" and tkven "you" in the vocative case become she! and tkve, without the -n. Therefore, one could, for instance, say, with the declension of all of the elements:
She lamazo kalo! "you beautiful woman!"
Korean
The vocative case in Korean is commonly used with first names in casual situations by using the vocative case marker 아 if the name ends in a consonant and 야 if the name ends with a vowel:미진이 집에 가?
미진아, 집에 가?
동배 뭐 해?
동배야, 뭐 해?
In formal Korean, the marker 여 or 이여 is used, the latter if the root ends with a consonant. Thus, a quotation of William S. Clark would be translated as follows:
소년이여, 야망을 가져라.
The honorific infix 시 is inserted in between 이 and 여.
신이시여, 부디 저들을 용서하소서.
In Middle Korean, there were three honorific classes of the vocative case:
| Form | 하 | 아/야 | 여/이여 |
| Honorific | High | Plain | Low with added nuance of exclamation |