To Be, or No To Be

I am have discovered my problem with Oriya. Something about the language always frightened me, and now I know what. They do not have a verb that means to be. For those of you who love language as I do, I will repeat that for emphasis. In Oriya, there is no form of to be. That means there is no I am, we are, or they are not. They simply do not have a way to relate existence as a verb. No To Be.

I discovered this during my daily lesson with Biku. I was asking him to teach me the pronouns in Oriya, figuring I would start where I learned any other language I speak. I would start with the simple phrase "I am." He said he couldn't teach me that. After aa few minutes of discussion I he came to realize what I was asking and told me there simply is no to be in Oriya.

Now that I understand that small little fact about this language, everything else is coming quickly. I am learning the forms of verbs, and how to properly make sentences. It appears that my biggest roadblock was simple existence, but now that that is gone, I am ready to learn more!