Kommentaarinen

Kommentaarinen is a Finnish adjective meaning related to or characteristic of a commentary. It is formed from the noun kommentaar (or kommentti) with the suffix -inen, a common way to create adjectives in Finnish. The term is widely used in scholarly, editorial, and literary contexts to describe material, approaches, or editions that accompany a primary text with interpretation, notes, or analysis rather than presenting new data as such.

In practice, kommentaarinen is used to describe things such as a kommentaarinen julkaisu (commentary edition), a kommentaarinen ote (commentary approach), or a kommentaarikirja (a work containing scholarly annotations on a text). In disciplines like philology, literature, theology, and history, the term signals that interpretation and marginalia accompany the source material. A kommenteerattu tai komentaarinen tulkinta refers to an interpretive reading informed by commentary rather than a purely descriptive account.

The word often appears alongside related terms such as kommentaarikirjallisuus (commentary literature), kommentaariperusteinen analyysi (commentary-based analysis), or komentaarin muoto (form of commentary). It is distinct from descriptive or empirical descriptors, since a kommentaarinen approach emphasizes interpretation, contextualization, and editorial notes. Etymologically, kommentaar is borrowed into Finnish from other European languages where terms for commentary originate, reflecting the word’s long-standing role in scholarly annotation and exegesis.