The perception of standard Irish as a prestige target variety

This contribution describes the current state and status of Official Standard Irish, Caighdeán Oifigiúil na Gaeilge, the standard language variety of the first of the two official languages of Ireland. The other official language is English, called Sacs-Bhéarla in the Constitution, clearly referring to Standard English, rather than any Irish variety. Standard Irish, as in many other national contexts, has had the function of providing a unified linguistic tool for the practical purposes of state governance and education. Although it was first defined for official purposes and explicitly does not ban other varieties, in the contexts of an historic popular language shift to English and the ideologically driven national language revival project, it has also played a central role in providing the target learner variety for the majority population who do not speak Irish as a home language.