yes they spoke English. But they didn't speak with an English rhythm or syntax. They wrote their own original songs in English - which are not from some English blueprint of folk music.

Okay the folk isolated in the Appalacian communities may have preserved our folksongs.

What about Yellow Bird in Jamaica, what about Keys to Highway in America, a belfast song like the Doffin Mistress?

Are these not folksongs with their own country of origin - written in English?