Religious Language in Kalindaqdaq (Mandar): Lexicon and Metaphor in an Islamic Oral Tradition

Abstract

Academic research on religious expression in Indonesia has long emphasized written sources, while it often overlooks oral traditions such as Kalindaqdaq, an oral poetry of the Mandar people that actively conveys Islamic teachings. This research gap appears because previous studies rarely examine how lexicon and metaphor operate linguistically within this tradition. This study therefore examines how Kalindaqdaq constructs religious values by combining philosophical, linguistic, and anthropolo­gical perspectives. This qualitative study analyzes Lontara manuscripts through philological methods, observes Kalindaqdaq performances ethno­g­raphically, and examines recorded performances using content analysis. The metrical analysis shows that performers consistently apply an 8-7-5-7 syllabic pattern in 98% of the verses. The lexical analysis reveals that Arabic theocentric terms account for 45% of the religious vocabulary and undergo systematic phonological adaptation. The meta­phor analysis further demonstrates how conceptual metaphors translate abstract Islamic ideas into concrete Mandar cultural experiences. These findings show that the study contributes methodologically by combining Scheler’s value theory with systematic linguistic analysis of lexical and metaphorical patterns. At the empirical level, the study documents an endangered oral tradition and clarifies how Islamic doctrine interacts with local cultural cognition in Nusantara’s religious oral literature.