Zapomniane rozstrzygnięcia normatywne Walentego Szylarskiego

Walenty Szylarski is the author of two Polish grammar books, one in the form of manuscript of 1767 and the other one published in Lviv in 1770. The subject matter of the analysis is fi ve normative resolutions proposed by Szylarski. They concerned: 1) the use of a diacritic over a, 2) the position of ą in the alphabet; 3) the spelling of j before a vowel; 4) the nominative and accusative cases of singular neuter nouns ending with -ę; 5) the instrumental and locative cases of singular and instrumental case of plural masculine and neuter adjectives. Szylarski’s suggestions concerning orthography had two basic causes: one was the lack of standardised, generally accepted rules of o rthography (fl uctuations in the use of endings), the other was the incompatibility of the spelling convention and the properties of language in use (j, -ę in the fi nal position, position of ą in the alphabet, use of a diacritic over the conjunction a). Some of the orthographic proposals were noticed, while others were not.