Indonesian-Arabic-English Code-Mixing in TikTok Da’wah: Linguistic Patterns, Communicative Functions, and Audience Accommodation

Abstract

This study examines Indonesian–Arabic–English code-mixing in TikTok da’wah videos, focusing on structural patterns, communicative functions, complementary linguistic roles, and communication accommodation. It aims to explain how multilingual resources contribute to religious expression, social identity, and audience orientation in digital religious discourse. The corpus comprised 29 TikTok da’wah videos containing 192 identified code-mixing units. Structural patterns were classified using Muysken’s typology, communicative functions were examined, and Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) was applied to 20 selected units. Insertion was the dominant structural pattern, accounting for 67.7% of the identified units, followed by alternation at 32.3%. No instances of congruent lexicalization were identified. The functional analysis associated Arabic primarily with religious quotation (28.4%) and English with identity marking (28.6%) and topic marking (26.4%). Prayers, honorifics, closings, and discourse markers also demonstrated pragmatic functions extending beyond the established functional categories. Indonesian provided the primary framework for conveying messages, Arabic maintained religious references and etiquette, and English contributed to identity expression, audience familiarity, and discourse organization. Among the 20 units examined through CAT, 10 displayed convergence, two displayed maintenance, and eight combined both orientations. These patterns suggest that accommodation can involve simultaneous efforts to establish audience proximity and preserve distinctive linguistic or religious features. The findings characterize code-mixing as a multilingual practice that brings communicative accessibility, religious identity, and contemporary digital expression into interaction. The study contributes to sociolinguistic research by connecting structural and functional analysis with accommodation in social media religious communication. It also provides a foundation for further investigation of how multilingual choices relate to audience interpretations and responses across different digital da’wah contexts.