From acronyms to intimacy: Slang as a Sociolinguistic Bridge in Youth Interactions in Manokwari, Papua.

Slang is not merely informal vocabulary but a powerful sociolinguistic resource through which youth negotiate identity, intimacy, and belonging in multilingual settings. This study investigates Papuan Malay slang as a sociolinguistic bridge among adolescents in Manokwari, West Papua, addressing a critical gap in region-specific research that has largely overlooked Eastern Indonesia’s localized linguistic dynamics. Employing a descriptive qualitative design, data were collected from 60 university students through observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation, yielding 244 slang items categorized into Papuan Malay Original Slang and Borrowed Dialect or Language Slang. The findings reveal that slang formation is systematic and creative, predominantly shaped by acronym formation, blending, clipping, borrowing, and word modification. Results further show that local slang remains slightly dominant, reflecting strong community-based identity, while borrowed forms signal engagement with broader digital and global youth culture. Slang circulates through a dual pathway: media-driven exposure for borrowed forms and peer interaction for local expressions. Functionally, slang facilitates communicative ease, humor, intimacy, and selective in-group exclusivity. These findings demonstrate that youth language in Manokwari is not a passive reflection of external influence but an active site of linguistic agency where local and global resources are negotiated. This study contributes to sociolinguistic theory by foregrounding slang as a dynamic bridge across linguistic scales and highlights its role in sustaining cultural identity within globalization. It also offers practical implications for language education and policy, advocating a balanced perspective that recognizes slang as a complementary communicative resource alongside formal language competence.