摘要：This paper contributes to the discussion of linguistic elitism in this journal (Borooah et
al., 2009). Two main questions are addressed. First, most ¡°census Irish speakers¡± are not in fact
Irish speakers and the majority of Irish speakers proper are not a coherent group. Second, the
Irish language is part of the cultural capital which can be acquired by people with an ¡°advantage.¡±
The argument is made that people with an advantage are more likely to speak Irish rather than
Irish speakers being more likely to have an advantage.
