The vocative is for calling out: O, brother!; Martha my dear! could be examples. If a masculine noun in the vocative has an added possesive pronoun in the first person, the said pronoun will be mi. O, my brother! would therefore be o, mi frater!
The vocative has no special morphology in feminine or neuter.
ME, on the other hand, is the personal pronoun meaning me. The specific form is either accusative or ablave, in the quoted Catullus accusativ, since apud governs the accusative case.
No. Only the thing/person you are adressing is in the vocative (Tom). You are not talking to “my bottle”.
Now, if for some reason you wanted to say, “O my bottle, why are you empty?”, “My bottle” would be in the vocative. BUT “you” is not - it is part of a separate sentence.
As I understand it, the vocativus of meus is meus, and only forms the alternative version , mi, by a process of analogy with proper names ending in -ius, which take i in the vocative, e.g. virgilius, virgili. Filius, fili and genius, geni also are formed by this analogical process. The accusative of ego, is “me”. These matters have been pointed out be previous posters. Sometimes the vocativus is meus, sometimes it is mi.
I’m not really sure I understand your question, perhaps you need to ask it in a different way, so that you difficulty is clearer. What textbook are you using? Knowing this would also be helpful.
Well, now I’m thoroughly confused as well. Now, with Virgillius, are you thinking of -ius adjectives? Mind, Virgillius in this context isn’t an adjective. It’s a pronoun. Similarily, vocative for second declension nouns is -e, not -us. Hence, Et tu Brute? when Brutus kills Caesar.
At first you have to distinguish personal from possessive pronouns. Possesive pronouns are always used in attributive (or predicate) position. This means that you have to correlate (in case, gender and number) the pronoun to the thing possessed. So, if the possessed thing stands in vocative, you use the vocative: “mi”-“meus”-“mea” etc.; if not, you use the correspondive case. So, consider the following funny sentences:
Oh, my eye, why can’t you see my hand? => O, mi ocule, cur meam manum videre non potes?
Oh, my eye, why my right hand is fallen down? => O, mi ocule, cur dextra (manus) mea cecidit?
Further:
Oh, my god, is my mother sad? => O, deus meus, mater mea misera est?
Oh, my son, did you give my brother a present? => O, mi fili, dedistine donum fratri meo?
You may of course use the personal pronoun instead, but always in (possessive) genitive close to the thing possessed. Note only that it is not very common. So:
O, fili mei, accipe donum mei. (It’s something like saying in english: Oh, son of mine, accept a present of mine)
My friend, I don’t really understand what you wish to say…
What you actually above say is “Tom, he, oh mine, of the bottle” or “Tom, he of bottle mine”
If you want to say “Tom, this is my bottle”, then the possibilities are:
Tom! Ea/haec ampulla mihi est. = This bottle belongs to me, I have this bottle.
Tom! Ea/haec ampulla mea est . = This bottle is mine.
Tom! Ea/haec est ampulla mea. = This is my bottle, or: My bottle is this one.
And if you like to say “Oh, Virgil! This is my bollte”, then you just change the proper name from “Tom” to “Virgil”. Nothing else needs to be changed!
Sometimes, as in poetry istead of “mihi” is found “mi”, but not as vocative, as dative also.
Remember, for first declension nouns, which mea would be used to match, the nominative ending is the same as the vocative. So, O, mea ampulla!, both mea and ampulla could easily be in the vocative. The ending is the same as in the nominative. Since mea/-us/-um refers to ampulla, they have to agree in number and case.
EDIT: A quick thought, which latin text are you working from?
First answer:
YES!!! MEA is the feminine of MEUS MEA MEUM (the possessive pronoun), and it stands in the same case as ampulla, meaning the NOMINATIVE, since the word AMPULLA in the sentence is the subject and MEA the predicate. It has nothing to do with the personal pronoun EGO MEI MIHI ME ME…
Second answer:
YES, correctly! But there is no pronoun related to the proper names in your examples. If you want to say: My girl! My servant! My Tullius! (e.g. calling them), then you use the vocative or the proper name plus the vocatime of the possessive pronoun in the same gender and number. MEA PUELLA! MI SERVE! MI TULLI!
Just remember: noun and pronoun form a couple and go together in gender, case and number. You should try to declinate couples like MEUS FILIUS, MEUS OCULUS, MEA TERRA, MEA SILVA, etc. in order to comprehend the way it goes, as a couple always
MEUS FILIUS
MEI FILII/FILI
MEO FILIO
MEUM FILIUM
MI FILI
MEO FILIO
MEI FILII
MEORUM FILIORUM
MEIS FILIIS
MEOS FILIOS
MEI FILII
MEIS FILIIS
MEA TERRA
MEAE TERRAE
MEAE TERRAE
MEAM TERRAM
MEA TERRA
MEA TERRA
MEAE TERRAE
MEARUM TERRARUM
MEIS TERRIS
MEAS TERRAS
MEAE TERRAE
MEIS TERRIS
the vocative of MEUS is either MI or MEUS. As MI is usually found next to vocative forms that differ from the nominative; as MEUS is usually found next to vocatives that are of the same form to the nominative (in this case, MI is also used):
MI OCULE
MEUS OCULUS (as vocative!)
MEUS DEUS (always)
MI PATER/MEUS PATER (both as vocative!)
MI PUER/MEUS PUER (both as vocative!)
The Vocative of OCULUS is OCULE. This makes sense when you say ‘MI OCULE’ because
OCULUS ends in -US (either -US or -IUS take ‘MI’)
But what does MEUS OCULUS translate to? Isn’t this ‘My eye’. That is what it should
translate to. This is possesion as if you were telling somebody about your eye.
But you say MEUS OCULUS is really the vocative which is ‘Oh my eye!’ As if your eye
was a person and your talking to it.
This doesnt make sense. ‘Oh my eye!’ should be ‘MI OCULE’ not ‘MEUS OCULUS.’
Also:
MEUS FILIUS (IS THIS THE NOMINATIVE?)
MEI FILII/FILI (IS THIS THE GENATIVE?)
MEO FILIO (IS THIS THE ACCUSATIVE? ME + O?)
MEUM FILIUM (IS THIS THE DATIVE? Shouldnt it be MIHI?)
MI FILI (IS THIS THE LOCATIVE?)
MEO FILIO (IS THIS THE ABLATIVE? ME + O?)
As i understood it it is:
MEUS (Nom)
MEI (Gen)
MIHI (Dat)
ME (Acc)
ME (abl)
What does the order, "MEUS - MEI -MEO -MEUM -MI -MEO’ mean? This has something to
do with -US nouns (masc): -US -I -O -UM -O
