Mykola Sumtsov and the language of folklore.

The purpose of the article: is to analyse the works of Mykola Fedorovych Sumtsov on oral folklore, to find out his contribution to the study of the language of folklore and to establish the significance of his folklore achievements for the further development of linguistic and folklore science in Ukraine. Research methodology: general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, as well as special historical methods-chronological and comparative historical-were used. Scientific novelty. For the first time in Ukrainian science, the works of the famous Kharkiv humanitarian scientist Mykola Fedorovych Sumtsov examined through the prism of linguofolklore. His role in the formation of this scientific field is determined. Conclusions. In his works, M. F. Sumtsov laid the groundwork for future linguistic studies in the field of linguofolklore. He sees the folklore of the Ukrainian people as an original, original and unique phenomenon, based on a broad international context. He saw in the Ukrainian language «the best manifestation of national life», «the treasury of the national spirit». Long before the separation of lingo-folklore studies into a separate branch of linguistic science, which began to take shape in the 70s of the twentieth century, M. F. Sumtsov outlined the search tasks of this field of knowledge. When studying works of oral folk literature, he calls for a close look at their language, especially the language of songs, fairy tales, and proverbs, and to look for the most characteristic features in it, that is, the language of folklore, which hide the deep sources of folk art as such. As a researcher of folklore and as a scholar in general, M. F. Sumtsov impresses with the diversity of his research. His scientific achievements in general and those in the field of folklore studies in particular are striking in their versatility, deep understanding of the problems under study, and interdisciplinary approach to their solution. The researcher takes into account heterogeneous folklore material: apocrypha, wedding songs, dumas, historical songs, fairy tales, lullabies, carols, shchedrivkas, Kupala songs, legends, and other manifestations of folk verbal creativity.