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In Italian, if I am referring to Southern Europe, I could say Sud Europa (literally "South Europe"), or Europa meridionale.

Is South Europe acceptable in English, or could I say "the south of Europe"?

StoneyB on hiatus
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apaderno
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    "South Europe" is uncommon but can definitely be used. "Southern Europe" would be more like it. – Mohit Jan 28 '13 at 03:31
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    If "the place" is a town or city, it's more likely to be just South (or, for example, East London). Also oceans (North Altantic is over 20 times more common in Google Books than Northern Atlantic). But really, there's not much of a "rule", as SF says. – FumbleFingers Jan 28 '13 at 05:40

2 Answers2

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Southern Europe is generally the preferred term. The south of Europe and South Europe are sometimes used.

See Google Ngram Viewer: Southern Europe, South Europe, the south of Europe, the South of Europe:

Ngram

As far as other names are concerned, the only rule is actual usage. Usually southern is used when referring to a region and South is part of proper names, but not always.

ctype.h
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    It's probably fair to say OP was interested in the more general case. We can't have dozens of questions dealing with every other place that might have North, South, East, and/or West sections. – FumbleFingers Jan 28 '13 at 05:34
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“North” or “Northern” as adjective

While in your specific case it's "Southern Europe" and using "South Europe" would be quite ...irregular, in general the rule is that there is no rule. Each place can be named North something, or Northern something, or something North, and it's completely up to the person who named it like that to choose.

Of course once given name is established, it's pretty much fixed from then on; you can't freely switch between North Korea and Northern Korea.

Community
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SF.
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    I don't think it's really true to say it's "up to the person who named it like that". In most cases, nobody decided anything - it's just that with forms that come up again and again, we tend to remember and reproduce the version we've heard most. – FumbleFingers Jan 28 '13 at 05:31
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    You can switch between North Korea and Northern Korea, but you'll be talking about two different places. North Korea refers to a specific country, the DPRK, and Northern Korea presumably refers to the generally northern-most regions of the territory of Korea, or perhaps the northern part of one of the countries specifically, based on context. And this is what the OP was referring to, I think: general regions, not officially named countries or areas. – Ken Bellows Jan 28 '13 at 18:10