Abstract

The article attempts to summarise the process of codifying the Ukrainian language in the first half of the 19th century. It covers the most important reference grammars of that time, presenting them in the context of the sociopolitical situation of a Ukraine divided between the Austrian and Russian Empires. The article describes the work of linguists and researchers who emphasized the autonomy of the language spoken in the Ukraine in contrary to the common trend which treated this ethnolect as a dialect of Polish or Russian. The presented reference grammars are a rich source of information about the Ukrainian language itself (including its regional varieties), as well as other forms of communication used at the beginning of the 19th century, such as iazychie. These works were a milestone towards the forming of the modern Ukrainian language and nation.