Re: Vocative case in Romance

From: tolgs001
Message: 16664
Date: 2002-11-10

>Both masc. -e

"Et tu, Brute?" :-)

>and fem. -o are from Slavic.

Here, something less known is worth mentioning: this feminine
vocative, in "-o", is common in certain Southern Romanian
subdialects only, i.e. in the provinces of Banat, Little Walachia
(Oltenia) and Walachia (Muntenia). But not even there is this
suffix constantly used, i.e. without exceptions. Whereas in all
other subdialects/regions of the Romanian language, this kind of
vocative is only known from... literature, from school and from
mass-media. That is: from the standard language. Because, in all
of the other subdialects/regions, the feminine vocative is either
"-a" /a/ or "-a~" /schwa/. Tertium non datur.

>Miguel Carrasquer Vidal

George Stana