I was told at school, so it must be true, that spoken English was almost naturally in Iambic Pentameter. Now I don't really understand what Iambic Pentameter means (I only really like poetry when it's sung to a good tune) but, and I'm guessing here, it would naturally lend itself to tunes in 5/4. So perhaps un-educated (musically speaking) English singers would tend to have drifted into 5/4 time.

On the face of it it does seem to make sense that the rythmns of the spoken language would influnce the rythmns of the songs. Does this show itself in the songs of other languages?

T

PS Searching For Lambs must be my favourite folk song, it seems to roll along so sweetly.