True enough meself, the Gaelic collections that were done were all in the twentieth century, and what was collected was only a part of what existed two or three generations before. Probably the same could be said for the Acadians except that they did a better job of preserving their culture. Ronnie MacEachern collected the songs from Amby only a few decades ago and he was born in the twentieth century. By then there was more English spoken than French or Gaelic. There was indeed English speaking settlement in Sydney and Ship Harbour (now Port Hawkesbury) and a few other areas back into the 19th century and earlier but English was isolated and not dominant. Until 1870 or so Whycocomagh was larger than Sydney and an even larger population was on Isle Madame and even Englishtown was near totally Gaelic. As Willie-O says we all sing in English today and that is our dominant tongue but it was not always so. Many of Amby's songs were not born on this isle and most of those that were date to after 1900. Of course in the 1800's English speaking people would have sung English songs but I know of none surviving from then that were created here. I think that is what Julia is seeking