Eelah gh agharrass

August 1995

While learning Tashlheit, I have noticed times when I hear something I've never heard before and then I hear it all the time after that. So when I heard eela gh agharrass, I didn't forget it. Not because I heard it a million times within the last two-three-four days, but because I played it over and over in my head that first time trying to decide the appropriate meaning.

Eelah can be "it is" or "there is" or "he is" and agharrass can mean "a way" or "a road". The sound gh is a preposition meaning "in" or "at" or who really knows anyway.

Anyway, I figured it could mean "there is a way" or "it is on the way" or "it is in the way" or "it is a road" or "it is on the road", and I mean I heard it every time I walked into a room. It was always said with a bit of sarcasm, like sarcastic preaching.

I thought maybe it had to do with the heat, like the heat's on its way out the door, or when we had couscous, I thought they said it because it was an unbelievable amount of couscous to be dealing with. So today, I broke down and asked, a little nervous about asking these things because I feel I'm expected to know it or it's assumed that I know it because I've heard it a million times in the past two-three-four days.

A stranger came walking through the village last week, so it seems, a little coo-coo in the head. He came in the heat of mid-day, from 25-30 km away, on foot. No car. No donkey. No nothin'. He came walking through this neighborhood with his little bag and someone asked him where he was going.

Eelah gh agharrass.

It's the village joke now, their answer for everything. Where are you going? eelah gh agharrass. What are you doing? Eelah gh agharass. Why are you doing that? Eelah gh agharrass.