diff --git a/mercurial/templatefilters.py b/mercurial/templatefilters.py
--- a/mercurial/templatefilters.py
+++ b/mercurial/templatefilters.py
@@ -339,7 +339,7 @@ def shortdate(text):
 @templatefilter('splitlines')
 def splitlines(text):
     """Any text. Split text into a list of lines."""
-    return templatekw.showlist('line', text.splitlines(), {}, plural='lines')
+    return templatekw.hybridlist(text.splitlines(), name='line')
 
 @templatefilter('stringescape')
 def stringescape(text):
diff --git a/tests/test-command-template.t b/tests/test-command-template.t
--- a/tests/test-command-template.t
+++ b/tests/test-command-template.t
@@ -3894,6 +3894,11 @@ Test splitlines
   o  foo line 1
      foo line 2
 
+  $ hg log -R a -r0 -T '{desc|splitlines}\n'
+  line 1 line 2
+  $ hg log -R a -r0 -T '{join(desc|splitlines, "|")}\n'
+  line 1|line 2
+
 Test startswith
   $ hg log -Gv -R a --template "{startswith(desc)}"
   hg: parse error: startswith expects two arguments