USAGE: Name clitics (was Re: USAGE: What gender is _Wikipedia_ in German?)

On Jul 28, 2006, at 7:05 AM, Kalle Bergman wrote:

> Makes me think of my dad's dialect, which has a
> special set of clitics used with names of people, when
> those names are used to refer to a person by that
> name. (So, for instance, you use the clitic when
> saying things like "I met Ove yesterday", but not when
> saying "His name is Ove", because in the latter case,
> "Ove" refers to the name itself, rather than to
> someone called "Ove"). The clitics were en-/n- in the
> case of men, and a- in the case of women, so you got
> things like:
>
> Jag såg n'Ove
> I saw Ove
>
> And
>
> Jag såg a'Karin
> I saw Karin
>
> I think it's an interesting feature.
It's very interesting!  I have thought about including something like
it in a conlang, but so far haven't quite done it.  Do you know the
origins of those clitics?  And does anyone know of other languages
that do that?  The only nat- or conlang I'm aware of is Toki Pona
with <jan> "person."

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