It's probably the A.L. Lloyd version of Sovay you're referring to. That's the one that has what sounds like a Balkan rhythm. The easiest way to deal with Balkan rhythms like that is to break them down into 2s and 3s. Eventually, you'll see where the 2s and 3s repeat, and you'll add up all the 2s and 3s and discover that they total 7 or 9 or 11 or 33 or whatever. Those are the complex compound rhythms that Balkan music is famous for. But remember that the time signatures are justa tool for notation. Many folks in the Balkan regions don't think 1-2 1-2 1-2-3; instead they think, short, short, long.