Interlingual

Interlingual is an adjective used in linguistics, translation studies, and cross-cultural communication to describe relations or processes that occur between languages. In translation theory, interlingual translation refers to the transfer of meaning from a source language into a target language. It sits alongside intralingual translation (within the same language) and intersemiotic translation (between sign systems). The concept was formalized in part by Roman Jakobson, who described three kinds of translation: within one language, between languages, and between sign systems.

Interlingual translation aims for equivalence at semantic, pragmatic, and stylistic levels. Translators consider linguistic form, cultural context, idioms, register, and audience expectations to render the source text intelligibly and naturally in the target language. Approaches range from formal (or literal) equivalence, which preserves wording and structure, to dynamic (or functional) equivalence, which prioritizes the overall communicative effect.

Interlingual translation is foundational to international communication, literature translation, legal and technical localization, and global media access. It also informs policy discussions on linguistic diversity and accessibility.

Challenges include cultural references, humor, metaphors, and untranslatable terms. Technological advances in machine translation and corpus-driven methods support interlingual transfer but depend on high-quality data and post-editing by human translators.

See also Interlingua; Interlingual translation; Interlanguage.