Question

May Allah reward you greatly for you answers to our questions and may we benefit from them and from the Qur'an itself.  Could you please tell me if the questioning hamzah is considered part of the word it is attached to? or the ya' used for calling?

Answer

Jazakum Allahu khairan, and Ameen. 

The questioning hamzah is a harf (participle or preposition) in Arabic grammar, and used as a tool for questioning.  If you get down to the technical grammar, it is not considered part of the word that it attaches to.  The hamzah of questioning can attach to a verb: , a noun: , or another harf: .  It has no grammatical significance as far as conjugation.

The  used for calling is also a harf in grammar and a tool for calling.  It too is not part of the word that it attaches itself to, and only enters nouns, such as in: , , and .  It also has no grammatical significance as far as conjugation. 

If there is a hamzah directly after the  of calling, such as in the first two examples above, there would be a medd, since there is an alif followed by a hamzah.  This medd is called , or allowed separated lengthening, because there are two words involved, even though in writing it looks like one word.  It would be lengthened 4 or 5 vowel counts if reciting according to the Shatabiyyah way of Hafs ‘an ‘Aasim.  You may hear some Imams lengthen it only two vowel counts, this is from the Tareeq At-Tayyibah ways of Hafs ‘an ‘Aasim, and only those who know the accompanying rules should lengthen it two vowel counts.