[tlhIngan Hol] is De' "data, information" countable ?

[SuStel]

On 7/10/2020 11:42 AM, Will Martin wrote:
> {vItlh} was apparently added to the vocabulary at the 2017 qepHom. The 
> quote about painsticks precedes that by a few years. Likely, Okrand 
> was giving us canon before the use of {law’} was restricted to 
> countable objects, and this was one of those tweakings of the language 
> that came later.
>
> Then again, since Okrand tends to keep everything canon legal, that 
> probably means that while best practice is to differentiate between 
> {law’} and {vItlh}, you aren’t completely wrong if you screw up and 
> use {law’}.

I agree. And if you need more justification, consider how often English 
speakers mix up /less /(used for uncountable nouns) and /fewer/ (used 
for countable nouns). Most English speakers have no idea which one is 
"correct," and use them interchangeably. The distinction between these 
words is disappearing.

Klingon *vItlh* and *law' *may be experiencing something similar. Or the 
explanation could be completely different. Without knowing more, we can 
just say that one solitary exception isn't enough to destroy a 
subsequent general rule.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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