The term jazyèije/jazyèyje was created in the second half of the 19th century in order to characterize the language of the West Ukrainian Russophiles and furthermore any varieties of the Ukrainian language which did not correspond to the folk language in a satisfying degree. The term was widely accepted and made its way into various handbooks on the history of the Ukrainian literary language. As a consequence, a lot of West Ukrainian, particularly Galician sources have not been thoroughly studied since at least the end of the Second, if not the end of the First World War. A critical analysis of the definition of jazyèije/jazyèyje and a survey of the range of varieties shows that the West Ukrainian development of the Ukrainian language is far more heterogenous, complex, and interesting with respect to the history of the Ukrainian language as a whole than the term jazyèije/jazyèyje suggests.