What is the vocative of 2nd decl words ending in -eus?
Do you mean the vocative of second declension words ending only in -us? As far as I know, -eus is not a type of declension.
If so, the ending is “-e” in the singular and this is the only case (overlooking a few exceptions) where the vocative differs from the nominative in form. The plural vocative ends in “-i.”
So, for murus, muri, m., the vocative is (s) mure and (pl) muri.
Edit: I missed that you were asking about the word baccalaureus. The vocative would be baccalauree. It derives from the adjective laureus, and the vocative for that is lauree.
Alright. Are you sure there isn’t an exception similar to that for words ending in -ius? (The voc. of Laurentius is Laurenti, not Laurentie.)
I don’t see any mention in Allen and Greenough of an exception to the locative rule for second declension -eus nouns/adjs.
See here: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0001%3Asmythp%3D49
But isn’t baccalaureus a medieval word? Given all the changes to cases that occurred in this period, I suppose it’s possible that a new rule arose which is not discussed in A&G. Maybe a person more familiar with medieval/renaissance Latin could help us?
Perseu est Perseus vocativo casu quod vocabulum Graecum.
Amadee est Amadeus quod Latinum seu Italicum.
Deus est Deus vocativo.
I didn’t even think about Greek words. Thanks for giving me the rule, which has recently proved helpful to me. I was thinking that Meliboeus from Virgil’s First Eclogue was a Greek name, but he is addressed in the voc. as Meliboee in line 6, so I guess it’s Latin. Cool.