Eufemisme Dalam Konteks Keagamaan: Studi Kontrastif Pada Khutbah Jumat Inggris dan Indonesia = Euphemism In Religious Contexts: A Contrastive Study of English And Indonesian Friday Sermon

Euphemism enables speakers to communicate sensitive, sacred, and face-threatening topics respectfully and persuasively. However, research on religious euphemism in English and Indonesian remains limited. This study examines the types, communicative functions, and denotative and connotative meanings of euphemisms in English and Indonesian Friday sermons through contrastive linguistic analysis. Utilizing a qualitative descriptive approach, the dataset comprises eight authentic Friday sermons, including four English sermon videos from the Australian Islamic Centre’s official YouTube channel and four Indonesian sermons recorded in two Makassar mosques during October–November 2025. Analysis of 62 identified euphemisms (31 from each language corpus) was conducted using Allan and Burridge’s (1991) classification of euphemism types, Nordquist’s (2018) framework of euphemism functions, and Leech’s (1981) theory of meaning. The findings reveal that both languages share four euphemism types, namely circumlocution, figurative expression, loan words, and one-for-one substitution. English sermons additionally employ colloquial expressions, understatement, and hyperbole, whereas Indonesian sermons uniquely contain flippancy, general-for-whole, and omission. Functionally, the shield function is dominant in both languages, whereas the secret agent function appears exclusively in English data. Semantically, both convey similar denotative meanings grounded in Islamic teachings but differ in connotative meanings reflecting cultural contexts. In particular, English euphemisms predominantly frame themes of faith, gratitude, moral responsibility, and remembrance of death, whereas Indonesian euphemisms focus on gratitude, righteous conduct, prayer, and preparation for the hereafter. It reveals that euphemisms operate not merely to soften sensitive religious contexts, but as strategic rhetorical tools that actively empower persuasive preaching while reinforcing shared Islamic values.