Abstrakt
Here presented are the results of a historical toponomastic study supported by a quantitative GIS-based analysis using GeoNames data. Under investigation are toponyms bearing reflexes of the early Slavic formant */-š č|ina/ (e.g.
Russ. -ščina, Pol. -szczyzna). Two subcategories are distinguished: (i) those combined with the suffix */-ov-/ and (ii) those without.
The geographical distribution reveals both types to be primarily East Slavic phenomena with their epicenter in the Belarusian area. Philological investigation of examples from old East Slavic texts reveals a path of development from spontaneous constructions in reference to parcels of land to the later establishment, evidently within the tradition of the Ruthenian landowning nobility, of -()ščina as a topoformant in its own right.