*Iroquoian Language

*Polysynthetic Language

*Two known dialects which differentiate between sounds in words, no specific names for the dialects

*Noun, and Adjective Incorporation

*Local Writing System: Syllabary based on Cherokee Syllabary, All the syllables from the Cherokee Syllabary are used in writing the Conestoga Syllabary and use the same pronunciations as in the Cherokee Language. The colon (:) and apostrophe (') are also used.  The colon indicates that a syllable has a long vowel sound.  The apostrophe indicates a glottal stop is present after a syllable.  There is no upper or lower case used or needed for the Conestoga Syllabary.

*Long and short duration vowels can indicate different words though the only difference in the words is vowel length

*Extensive use of Prefixes, Infixes, and Affixes, also uses Circumfix construction

*Tonal language with tone changing meaning of words or prefixes that otherwise sound the same other than their difference in tone

*The basic pattern for almost all verb tenses is as follows: Pronominal Prefix + Verb Root+ Tense, Aspect, Mood (TAM)

  Note: Tense, Aspect and Mood (TAM) are all marked on Verb using a single Syllable in most cases

  Note:  Pronominal Prefixes are attached directly to the Verb Root and so is the TAM Syllable.

*Incorporated Verbs

  Note: Verbs can be incorporated with other verbs to produce a singular concept which might sound similar when translated into another language, but serves some very specific functions in Conestoga Language. This 

  construction is used with the verb root of "to be" and the root of second verb. The pattern is as follows: Pronominal Prefix + Verb Root + TAM + 2nd Verb Root + TAM + End of Phrase Marker. In this construction the TAM

  is applied to both of the incorporated verbs but the Pronominal Prefix is only attached to the root of "to be". The root of "to be" has the proper TAM attached to it for the given situation that the speaker wants to express. The

  second verb root is attached directly to the TAM of the "to be". The TAM needed for the second verb root is attached directly to the second verb root.

  Note: There are a few instances where this construction takes place:

  1.  It is used when answering the question "What are you/other person(s) doing?".

  2.  It can be used as a strong snide retort if one is being given a command that the listener(s) perceive(s) to be out of line for the speaker to be giving.

  3.  It can be used in the context of a question that implies the the speaker is unsure whether the listener(s) are committing an action currently in order to give a very strong affirmation tha the action is being committed.

  4.  If a request is made, this construction can be used to indicate indirectly that the request cannot be fulfilled in the given time frame of the request. This is very important because an outright "no" is considered to be rude in

       Conestoga culture. The requester might then ask how long the current action the listening person is doing might last. This is a polite way of re-inforcing the definite need for the request to be fulfilled when the current action

       is completed. A negotiation on time frame to complete the request might then ensue.

*Classificatory Verbs

  Note: Has up to ten classifications in a verb type (have, give) and seven in one instance (get).

The ten classifications are as follows: 1. Amorphous object

                                                            2. Amorphous object + it

                                                            3. Long object that is flat lying down

                                                            4. Long object that is up and down (perpendicular to the ground)

                                                            5. Liquid object/an object that contains liquid

                                                            6. A floating object (on water)

                                                            7. Round object

                                                            8. Live object

                                                            9. Object that used to be alive

                                                           10. The plain use of the verb as one would have in English

*Conestoga is an Active-Stative language.

*Depending on the verb itself, the Pronominal Prefix used on the verb makes the verb Transitive or Intransitive making Conestoga likely a Fluid-Subject sub-type of Active-Stative Language

*Depending on the verb itself, the Pronominal Prefix used on the verb makes the verb Agentive or Patientive

*Nouns

   Almost all Nouns have the following Pattern: Pronominal Prefix + Noun Root

   Nominalized Verbs can have the following Patterns: Pronominal Prefix + Noun Root + Nominalizer Affix

                                                                                                 Noun Root + Nominalizer Affix

   Incorporation of Nouns with Verbs Pattern: Proniminal Prefix + Verb Root + TAM + Noun

   Possession of Nouns is shown in the following Pattern: Pronominal Prefix + Noun Root

*Adjectives

  Almost non-existent in Conestoga as a separate class due to need for incorporation with Verbs in most instances

  Adjective Incorporation into Verbs Pattern: Pronominal Prefix + Adjective + Verb Root + TAM

  As is the case with its sister languages, most words that are adjectives in English are inherently stative verbs in Conestoga Language

*Adverbs

  Almost non-existent in Conestoga Language as a separate class due to their similar behavior to Adjectives and the fact that adverbs can function as verbless sentences in the following pattern: Pronominal Prefix + Adverb

*Pre-Pronominal Prefixes

  Pre-Pronominal Prefixes show the following things: modality, if clauses, conditionality

  The Pattern for a word-sentence example is the following: Pre-Pronominal Prefix + Pronominal Prefix + Verb Root + TAM

*End of Phrase Marker

 Since questions can appear at the beginning of phrases, the middle of phrases, and the end of phrases, there is no question mark used in writing Conestoga Language as this would break up the sentence and cause interpretation problems of the written word.  There is an End of Phrase Marker however which shows the completion of a full thought phrase.  Since this is the case, subordinate clauses are not marked by a comma or other sort of punctuation.  There are no exclamation marks in Conestoga Language because they are not needed.  The grammar already provides the needed phrasing via the appropriate syllabification and is why exclamation marks are not needed in Conestoga Language.  The End of Phrase Marker is an underscore marker that is attached directly to the final syllable of a complete thought phrase.  This means in verbless sentences, that the end of phrase marker is used in exactly the same way as in a sentence containing a verb.  Without the appropriate orthography being computerized as of yet, there is no way to demonstrate an end of phrase marker being attached to the final syllable of the complete thought phrase.  The following is the End of Phrase Marker: _