The Eighth Case – Vocative

This case marks an exclamation, usually using a person’s name or other term referring to them (e.g. “teacher”).

This has a set of particles: ཀྱེ། ཀྱེ་མ། ཀ་ཡེ། ཀྭ།
These can come before or after the name or term, but are not actually necessary to form the Eighth Case; the name or term can be left unmarked.

This lack of marker and the placement of the marker mean that some will argue this is also a case in mere name (like the First Case).

For example:

• “Oh great master! Please listen to me.” ཀྱེ་སློབ་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་གསན་དུ་གསོལ།
• “Please think of me, oh master!” བདག་ལ་དགོངས་ཤིག་སློབ་དཔོན་ཀྱེ།
• “Shariputra, any son of the lineage or daughter of the lineage…” ཤཱ་རིའི་བུ་རིགས་ཀྱི་བུའམ་རིགས་ཀྱི་བུ་མོ་གང་ལ་ལ་་་།
• “Monks, one who sees dependent-arising sees the Dharma.”
  དགེ་སློང་དག་སུས་རྟེན་ཅིང་འབྲེལ་བར་འབྱུང་བ་མཐོང་བ་དེས་ཆོས་མཐོང་ངོ་།

When the case marker is not used, as in the last two examples, one can usually spot the Eighth Case since there will be a name or person referred to at the beginning of the sentence that is unmarked by any other case and does not participate in the grammar of the sentence, e.g. by being the First Case object for the verb.

The Eighth Case marker can also be used to form an exclamation without referring to a person. This will usually form the beginning of a thought or reported speech.

For example:

• “Thinking, ‘Oh! If these sentient beings, who are beloved and dear to me, are bereft of happiness and tormented by suffering in such a way…’”
  ཀྱེ་མ་བདག་ལ་སྡུག་ཅིང་ཡིད་དུ་འོང་བའི་སེམས་ཅན་འདི་དག་འདི་ལྟར་བདེ་བས་ཕོངས་པ་དང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱིས་མནར་ན་་་། སྙམ་དུ།

Up a level: The eight cases