Abstract
The rapid expansion of digital communication and urban popular culture has reshaped language practices among Generation Z in multilingual societies, where local, national, and global linguistic resources dynamically intersect. This study investigates the forms, interactional patterns, influencing factors, and socio-cultural meanings of code-switching between Cirebonese Javanese and Jakarta slang among Generation Z adolescents in Suranenggala, Gunung Jati, Plered, and Kapetakan, Cirebon Regency. Employing a descriptive qualitative design, the study draws on data from participatory observations and semi-structured interviews with 23 Generation Z participants across face-to-face and digitally mediated interactions. The findings reveal that code-switching occurs in inter-sentential, intra-sentential, and tag-switching forms, operating through solidarity, situational, and metaphorical patterns. Rather than functioning merely as an arbitrary mixture or reflecting language attrition, this linguistic behavior represents a deliberate sociolinguistic strategy shaped by interlocutor hierarchy, digital exposure, topical-emotional framing, and social prestige considerations. Through hybrid language practices and cultural syncretism, adolescents strategically balance local cultural affiliation (wong dewek) with modern, cosmopolitan youth identities, while maintaining traditional communicative ethics (unggah-ungguh) in domestic and intergenerational domains. The study demonstrates that urban slang adoption does not displace the local heritage language, but prompts a functional domain redistribution that fosters linguistic creativity, social adaptability, and layered cultural sustainability in contemporary multilingual Indonesia.