{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’}.

Tomayto/Tomahto...

charghwI’ vaghnerya’ngan

rInpa’ bomnIS be’’a’ pI’.




On Jul 10, 2020, at 10:09 AM, mayqel qunen'oS <mihkoun@gmail.com> wrote:

SuStel:
> It has never been used countably. I would
> go with De' lo'laH wISuqpu'. Kruge says
> De' yIlI', not  De' tIlI'. De' lI' Sovlu'DI', not 
> De' lI' luSovlu'DI'. Vixis says De' wIHevtaH, > not De' DIHevtaH.

ok, thanks. I wasn't aware of these examples, which answer as well the next thing I was wondering, with regards to if we should write {De' law'} or {De' vItlh} for "many information". I guess {De' vItlh} would be the preferable choice, since {vItlh} "is used for things that are measurable or quantifiable, but not necessarily countable".

Although, since we have the Ca'Non example of:

{chIch vay' 'oy'moHmeH 'oy'naQ 'ul law' tlhuD 'oH}
Painstiks ... emit a highly ­charged shock for the express purpose of
inflicting pain. S32

...
~ Qa'yIn
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