In 19th century Croatia, there were four philological schools – the ones that operated in Rijeka, Zagreb and Zadar and Croatian Vukovites. Zagreb Philological School was led by Adolfo Veber Tkalčević, Rijeka Philological School by Fran Kurelac, Zadar Philological School by Ante Kuzmanić, whereas leaders of the Croatian Vukovites were Tomo Maretić, Franjo Iveković and Ivan Broz. Based on the linguistic analysis of debates, programmatic texts and other linguistic works authored by Fran Kurelac and Adolf Veber Tkalčević (Recimo koju, Kako da sklanjamo imena? Mulj govora, Fluminensia, Brus jezika, O našem pravopisu, Obrana njekoliko tobožnjih barbarozamah, Zagrebačka škola), we have defined phonological, morphological, syntactic, word formation and lexical differences between the linguistic concepts of the two philological schools. Also, having analysed orthographical differences between the two linguistic concepts, we came to the conclusion that both schools were more inclined toward the morphonological orthography, which we have substantiated with examples. With linguistic work under the title Brus jezika, Zagreb Philological School marked a victory against Rijeka Philological School and, continuing the Illyrian tradition, established the Shtokavian dialect as base for the standard Croatian without belittling the Chakavian or the Kajkavian dialect. Finally, when one studies the 19th century Croatian philological schools, the question of lexical borrowing becomes unavoidable. While Kurelec fiercely defends his purist tendencies, Veber is more liberal in that regard, approaching the concept of elastic stability, which will be defined in more detail by Ljudevit Jonke in the 20th century.