Some Chinese practices: 03 (Familiar reference: southern-speak)

 

This is only my own little corner of a much bigger picture.

    In southern-speak, familiar reference uses the addressee's own personal name (omitting the generation name), prefixed by 阿 / Ā.  

    阿 / Ā doesn't mean anything, it's used purely for balance, e.g., if a person is called WANG Ling or LI Mei, with Wang and Li being the surname, then their personal names are monosyllabic, which sounds a bit awkward to utter (just Ling or Mei) in the Chinese traditional way of doing things.

    This is where the meaningless 阿 Ā will be inserted, for balance: 阿玲 / Ā Líng or 阿梅 / Ā Méi sounds less terse.  

    (This rule is applied in Singlish, which is Singapore English based on Chinese grammatically and in other linguistic ways.  A Western name will have Ā added if it's monosyllabic.  David will stay as David as it's two sounds, but Dave will have Ā inserted to become Ā Dave -- even when it's used in an English sentence.)