Animate nouns

Animate nouns seem to be given prominence in the grammar of many languages. Masculine nouns in Slavic languages, for example, are different from masculine inanimate nouns in that they have the same form as the genitive - singular and plural, except Czech, whereas inanimate nouns have the same form as the nominative:

Czech: Koupil jsem si nový počítač. - I bought myself a new computer. Počítač, masculine inanimate noun, has the same form in the nominative.
Můj počítač je nový. - My computer is new.

Feminine animate nouns in Russian have the same form in accusative and genitive plural:
Я поприветствовал учительниц. - I greeted the (female) teachers.
Записки учительниц лежат на столе. - The notes of the teachers/The teachers' notes are on the table.

Spanish and Romanian, and Portuguese to a much lesser extent, "draw attention" to their animate nouns in the accusative by using a preposition (a in Spanish and Portuguese, pe in Romanian):
Spanish: No conozco esta ciudad. - I don't know this city. Ciudad is an inanimate noun, no a added.
No conozco a esa señora. - I don't know that lady. Señora, animate, needs a.

Romanian: Nu cunosc acest oraş. - I don't know this city. Oraş is inanimate. No pe.
Nu o cunosc pe acelă doamnă. - I don't know that lady. Doamnă is animate. Pe required.

Romanian has another interesting feature, which can be seen in the aforementioned sentence. The o before the verb literally means her ("I don't know her that lady"). That object pronoun, which agrees with the object, is required when the object is animate. Another example, this time with a masculine noun:

Nu îl cunosc pe acel domn. - I don't know that gentleman. Îl (him) is masculine like domn.

And that brings us to Macedonian, which behaves in a similar way, except that a pronoun is required whenever the object, direct or indirect, is definite:

Го не знам градов. - I don't know this city.
Jа не знам дамана. - I don't know that lady.

Го, like Romanian îl, is used with masculine and neuter direct objects; ja is used with feminine direct objects.

Both Romanian and Macedonian require that an indirect pronoun be used in case there is a definite indirect object represented by a noun:

Romanian: I-am dat o maşină a fiului.
Macedonian: Му дадoв кола на синот.
English: I gave a car to my son./I gave my son a car.

In Macedonian му is required as an indirect object pronoun in the presence of a an indirect object masculine noun.

And that takes us back to Spanish, which allows for the same duplication, although it is not mandatory in most cases:
Le di un coche a mi hijo. = Di un coche a mi hijo. - I gave my son a car.

Where le is the indirect object pronoun.

Interesting.