أَيْ صَدِيقِي، اسْمَعْ
O my friend, listen.
Ay also addresses someone originally viewed as near. In this usage it is a vocative particle, not the interrogative noun ayy meaning “which.”
أَيُّ كِتَابٍ قَرَأْتَ؟
Which book did you read?
Here ayyu is an interrogative noun seeking identification of a book. Phonetic similarity does not make the two expressions identical in grammar or rhetorical function.
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Nidāʾ: Definition, Eight Particles, Nearness and Distance, and Rhetorical Purposes
أَيْ صَدِيقِي، اسْمَعْ
O my friend, listen.
Ay also addresses someone originally viewed as near. In this usage it is a vocative particle, not the interrogative noun ayy meaning “which.”
أَيُّ كِتَابٍ قَرَأْتَ؟
Which book did you read?
Here ayyu is an interrogative noun seeking identification of a book. Phonetic similarity does not make the two expressions identical in grammar or rhetorical function.