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Are the verb suffixes "-ate" in English and "-ать" in Russian cognates?

I would guess that "-ate" comes from Latin and is also the source of the verb suffix "-ar" in Spanish. Latin and Russian are supposed to be similar in many ways, so it perhaps would not be surprising.

I tried searching for this on Google but I couldn't find any results (probably because I am bad at searching). Anyway I figured that someone on this website would probably know.

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    Latin already had infinitives ending in -re (from earlier *-se). So the Spanish one is a different beast. – Nikolay Ershov Sep 5 '16 at 9:27
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No, they are not directly cognates. The -ate comes from Latin -atus, as Roux stated above, and the -atus is dividable in -a and -tu(s), as Nikolay stated. -tus is homonymic for participle *-to and verbal noun *-tu. But the verbal noun *-tu is not the same verbal noun as verbal noun in *-ti(s), whose dative *-tei gave us our -ть- and -ти-infinitives (-чь-infinitive is -к-ть or -г-ть). The -a- of Latin verbs and of Russian verbs is usually suffix in both (and even the exception is the same: dare/дать), but it is not always the same one (though there is verbalisator -ā in both languages). So neither part is directly cognate.

I also think it is worth mentioning that when we have loanwords for verbs in -ate, they usually end in -ировать (because of German and French interference), as in castrate - кастрировать, meditate - медитировать. However, their verbal noun is -ация for -ation: castration - кастрация, meditation - медитация.

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    However, their verbal noun is -ация for -ation: castration - кастрация, meditation - медитация. maybe not always as there's a word кастрирование which is a genuine verbal noun, as well as саботирование and the like. It's true they're not completely normative or not all of them, but they're morphologically correct and used in speech – Баян Купи-ка Sep 5 '16 at 14:23
  • Well, the -ирование model is part of general -ние model, which is productive and correct - therefore, there is competition for two models. And, when two models compete, the more specific is to be chosen (that's why we have went not *goed and taken not *taked in English). – Viridianus Sep 7 '16 at 0:38
  • either went and took or gone and taken ;^) – Баян Купи-ка Sep 7 '16 at 8:18
  • @БаянКупи-ка All the four, actually) – Viridianus Sep 13 '16 at 18:23
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You are right, English suffix -ate comes from the Latin -ātus.

In Russian, there's no suffix "-ать". Usually, "-a" is considered to be one suffix, and "-ть" - another one. "-ть" is assumed to originate from "-ти", marker for the infinitive in proto-slavic language, which, in turn, comes from Proto-Indo-European "-tei".

So, they are quite unlikely to be cognates.

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    That *-tei, though, was the dative form of a verbal noun. And it's not a single suffix in Latin either, since there's also -itus (as in preferitus) or just -tus (dictus). I'd say, it mirrors the Russian/Slavic situation fairly well. – Nikolay Ershov Sep 5 '16 at 9:25

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