doroshe dearer, doroshaishii, dearest.  Equally rich is this language in augmentative and diminutive forms not only of the substantive but also of the adjective, a perfection in which even the Italian can hardly be compared to it; of which however all the Slavic dialects possess more or less.  Almost all the Russian substantives have two augmentatives and three diminutives; some have even more.  We abstain with some difficulty from adducing examples; but we are afraid of going beyond our limits.  It deserves to be mentioned as a peculiarity, that the Slavi consider only the first four ordinal numbers as adjectives, and all the following ones as substantives.  For this reason, the governed word must stand in the genitive instead of the accusative:  osm sot (nom. sto), eight hundred.  In all negative phrases they employ likewise the genitive instead of the accusative.  A double negation occurs in Slavic frequently, without indicating an affirmation; for even if another negation has already taken place, they are accustomed to prefix to the verb the negative particle ne or nje.

In respect to the verb, it is difficult to give a general idea of its character; for it is in the forms of this part of speech, that there reigns the greatest variety in the numerous dialects of the Slavic language.  The same termination which in Old Slavonic and in Russian indicates invariably the first person of the present, u or gu, is in Servian that of the third person Plural of the present and imperfect; and the general termination of the Servian and the Polish for the first person of the present, am, em or im, is in Old Slavonic and Russian used for the Plural, em and im.  There is however one fundamental form through all the Slavic dialects for the second person of the present, a termination in ash, esh or ish; and this is consequently the person, by which it is to be recognized to what conjugation a verb belongs.

The division of the verbs adopted in all other European languages into Active and Passive, seems to be useless in Slavic; for their being active or passive has no influence upon their flexion; and the forms of the Latin Passive and Deponent must in Slavic be expressed by a circumlocution.  A division of more importance and springing from the peculiarity of the language itself, is that into verbs Perfect and Imperfect.  Neither the Greek, nor the Latin, nor the German, nor any of the languages derived from them, admits of a similar distinction.  It seems therefore difficult for persons not perfectly acquainted with any Slavic dialect, to form to themselves a clear idea of it.  It is however one of their most striking features, which adds very considerably to their general richness and power.  The relation in which the perfect and imperfect verbs stand to each other, is about the same as that of the perfect and imperfect tenses in the conjugation of the Latin