The goal of this study is to elucidate the similarities between the grammar of oral folk music and oral language grammar through field examples from Grupo Kultura, a group of neo-Latin American musicians in the mid-Willamette Valley area of Oregon. The linguistic analysis of oral folk music explores textual and contextual issues which serve to highlight the need to include such forms of communication as music in an expanded view of "language." It suggests both fluid and non-fluid boundaries between spoken language and oral folk music. Of particular emphasis are the potential ability of music to express deep emotional content in music and the possible decoding of that content's musical meaning. Data was collected through ethnographic interviews and participant observation. / Graduation date: 1998