Theory of speech sounds in the grammars of Onufry Kopczynski

The article presents point of view of Onufry Kopczynski on ways of description of Polish sounds and the way how he described Polish speech sounds in the first Polish grammars in the 70s and 80s of 18th century as well as in so called 'Gramatyka Pozgonna' (the book published after his death in 1817). These works were a point of reference for next generation of Polish grammarians before the birth of scientific linguistics in Poland. The authoress shows theoretical basis of Kopczynski's views, the ways they were influenced by French rational and philosophical grammars and how this resulted in his attitude to sound aspect of language and in some ways prevented him from the accurate examination and description of the phenomenon.