interlineaire

Interlineaire, often written interlinéaire in French, is a formatting convention used primarily in biblical philology and linguistics to present a text in its original language with immediate analytic help. Typically, an original line is followed by a second line containing a word-by-word gloss, sometimes aligned beneath each corresponding word, and a third line with a natural-language translation. In more detailed versions, a morpheme-by-morpheme gloss and lines showing lemmas or grammatical labels may be added. The arrangement aims to reveal grammatical structure, word formation, and cross-linguistic correspondences without obscuring the original wording.

Origin and use have roots in 19th-century biblical scholarship, when scholars began to publish original Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek texts alongside concise grammatical notes. The interlinear format later spread to general linguistics and language documentation as a practical tool for learners and researchers to study morphology, syntax, and lexical relations. In biblical studies, interlinear Bibles often supplement the base text with glosses and may include indices such as Strong’s numbers to assist cross-referencing.

Structure and variants: a typical three-line layout includes the source text, a gloss line, and a translation. Some implementations add a fourth line with grammatical tags, lemmas, or more detailed morpheme boundaries. There are horizontal and vertical variants, and some editions integrate interlinear elements into digitally searchable formats to support linguistics work and language learning.

Relation to other methods: interlinear presentation is distinct from parallel-text translations, which place multiple translations side by side without morphemic analysis. It remains a valuable, though specialized, tool for examining linguistic structure and the relationship between form and meaning.