Ah

Today in Singapore I was given this. It shows that Coke is smartly localising its personalised cans. But also it got me wondering what 'ah' means before a noun in SG. Another one I've seen said 'ah kong'. And there is a popular local movie here called 'Ah Boys to Men'. What is 'ah'? 

A local friend informed me it has no real meaning, but signifies an affectionate way of referring to the person. (FYI in Singapore you will commonly find local dialects mixed together, with Malay, with English, anything goes really!) Ah kong means grandpa. And this 'ah' is mainly from the Chinese Hokkien dialect (though it seems there are Cantonese and other 'ahs' as well!)

Funnily enough, in Northern England we also use 'our' to refer affectionately to family members and close friends, usually preceding actual names - our Sarah, our Gary etc. (ie 'belonging to us'.)

In Singapore, I've also heard the Hokkien terms 'ah beng' and 'ah lian' which refer to gangsterish, badly dressed young males and females respectively. I can only guess these are also seen affectionately?