أيش

Contraction of أَيُّ (ʔayyu) +‎ شَيْءٍ (šayʔin), literally “which thing”. Seems to have arisen as مَا (mā) completed its shift from an interrogative particle to a negative one.

• IPA^(key): /ʔaj.ʃin/

أَيْشٍ • (ʔayšin) m (construct state أَيْشِي (ʔayšī))

1. (Classical, informal) contraction of أَيُّ (ʔayyu) +‎ شَيْءٍ (šayʔin): what?
   • 1324, Tāj ad-Dīn as-Subkiyy, Ṭabaqāt aš-Šāfiʻiyya al-Kubrā:

     […] فَقَالَ لِي أَحْمَدُ: نَظَرْتَ فِيهِ؟ فَقُلْتُ: لَا، فَكَسَرَ ٱلْخَتْمَ وَقَرَأَهُ وَتَغَرْغَرَتْ عَيْنَاهُ، فَقُلْتُ لَهُ: أَيْشٍ فِيهِ يَا أَبَا عَبْدِ اللّٰهِ؟ فَقَالَ: يَذْكُرُ فِيهِ أَنَّهُ رَأَى رَسُولَ اللّٰهِ صَلَّى اللّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ فِي ٱلنَّوْمِ […]

     […] faqāla lī ʔaḥmadu: naẓarta fīhi? faqultu: lā, fakasara l-ḵatma waqaraʔahu wataḡarḡarat ʕaynāhu, faqultu lahu: ʔayšin fīhi yā ʔabā ʕabdi llāhi? faqāla: yaḏkuru fīhi ʔannahu raʔā rasūla llāhi ṣallā llāhu ʕalayhi wasallama fī n-nawmi […]

     […] Then Ahmad said to me: "Have you looked at it?" So I said: "No." So he broke the seal and read it, and his eyes twinkled, so I said to him: "What is in it, O Abu Abdullah? So he said: "It says that he saw the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, in sleep." […]

• ايش (ēš), إيش (ʔēš)

From Arabic أَيْشٍ (ʔayšin), from أَيُّ شَيْءٍ (ʔayyu šayʔin, literally “what thing”).

• IPA^(key): /ʔeːʃ/, [ʔeːʃ]

• Audio (Birzeit):

  (file)

أيش • (ʔēš)

1. what?

   Synonym: شو (šu)

• Fischer, August (1905), “Arab. أَيْش”, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft‎^[1] (in German), volume 59, pages 807–818