kielenvälisen

Kielenvälinen is a Finnish adjective meaning interlingual or cross-linguistic. The form kielenvälisen is its genitive singular, used when the adjective modifies a noun in the genitive case, as in kielenvälisen kommunikaation (interlingual communication).

In Finnish linguistic usage, the term describes phenomena that involve more than one language or occur at language boundaries. It is used to characterize processes, relationships, or interactions that span languages, such as cross-language communication, translation studies, language contact phenomena, and interlanguage transfer in second language acquisition. The concept functions as a descriptor within broader research areas rather than as a standalone field.

The term is closely related to language contact and cross-linguistic influence, and it appears across disciplines such as linguistics, sociolinguistics, and translation studies. It is not a separate branch of science, but a label applied to observations and analyses involving multiple languages.

Etymology and forms: kielenvälinen derives from kieli (language) and välinen (between). The form kielenvälisen serves the genitive case and appears in phrases within Finnish sentences; when translating, English writers typically render the concept as interlingual or cross-linguistic. In Finnish texts, kielenvälinen describes interactions that occur across languages, rather than within a single language.

See also: language contact, cross-linguistic influence, interlanguage, translation studies.