Babuki？’s Ilirska slovnica – 160 Years Later

Sa？etak Ilirska slovnica, whose objective linguistic valorisation was long overdue, was published one hundred and sixty years ago. Although it was the first Croatian scientific grammar and although Vjekoslav Babuki？ was the first and the main codifier of the Croatian language in the middle of the 19th century and the first professor of the Croatian language at a higher education establishment, implying that the author and his grammar should be important for Croatian linguistics, this grammar was a turning point for Babuki？; it led him to financial and professional ruin and after it his career and his work started falling into oblivion. Immediately after being published, the grammar faced negative reviews that remained present in the study of the Croatian language and literature up to the end of the 20th century, thus causing the grammar to be almost completely neglected. The paper will analyse reasons why the grammar was not given enough attention in the study of the Croatian language and literature, as well as examine both its drawbacks and its scientific values. From a significant time distance, its role in the history of Croatian linguistics will be evaluated