Vocatives. Vocative openers consist of the title, name, or noun designating the addressee
followed by the vocative enclitics:
_o for singular male addressees,
_â for singular female addressees, or
_so (with oblique plural forms of nouns) for plural
addressees.
These forms are typically preceded by attention signals. If the addressee is distal,
the attention signal `vo is used:
`vo `molkon o.
‘Hey, Molkon!',
`vo `juk â.
‘Hey, girl!',
`vo `juka˜_so.
‘Hey, girls!'
Two attention signals may be used toward proximal addressees. `li-
plus vocative enclitic, with or without the addressee's nominal designator, prompts the addressee to
respond:
`lio `molkon o.
‘Hey, Molkon!',
`le `sunmRi â.
‘Hey, SunmRi!',
`lioa˜_so.
‘Hey, people!'.
`ea prompts the addressee to pay attention:
`ea ^mânšoa˜_so.
‘Hey, men!'
Phonologically specialized forms include
`vâaTo.
‘Hey, boy!'
for distal addressees and
^âaTe.
‘Hey, boy!'
and
^âjea.
‘Hey, girl!'
for proximal addressees.
Responses from a distal addressee are
`vou.
‘Yeah'
or
^kâ·i?
‘What?'
and from a proximal addressee
`o˜u.
‘Yes'.