Southern Europe

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The term Southern Europe, at its most general definition, is used to mean "all countries in the south of Europe". However, the concept, at different times, has had different meanings, providing additional political, linguistic and cultural context to the definition in addition to the typical geographical, phytogeographic or climatic approach. Most countries in southern Europe border the Mediterranean Sea.

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[edit] Geographical definition

Southern Europe by UN.

Geographically, southern Europe is the southern half of the landmass of Europe. This definition is relative, with no clear limits. The Alps and Massif Central mountains constitute a physical barrier between Italy and France and the rest of Europe.[clarification needed]

Countries geographically considered part of southern Europe include:

[edit] Iberian Peninsula

[edit] Italian Peninsula

[edit] Balkans

[edit] Other

[edit] United Nations geoscheme

Southern Europe as defined by the United Nations (marked green):      Northern Europe      Western Europe      Eastern Europe      Southern Europe

For its official works and publications, the United Nations Organization groups countries under a classification of regions. Southern Europe, as defined by the United Nations (the sub-regions according to the UN), comprises the following countries and territories:

[edit] Climatical definition

Southern Europe's climate is that of the Mediterranean climate, which has become a typically known characteristic of the area. The humid subtropical climate can be considered too as a Southern Europe climate (Northern Italy, Eastern Romania and Bulgaria).

The area presents similar landscapes throughout, including:

The area which is considered climatically Southern Europe is:

[edit] Phytogeographical definition

The European floristic regions

Southern Europe's flora is that of the Mediterranean Region, one of the phytochoria recognized by Armen Takhtajan. The Mediterranean and Submediterranean climate regions in Europe comprise the following countries and territories:[2]

[edit] Linguistic Southern Europe

[edit] Romance languages

Romance languages and modern Greek are the heirs of Latin and ancient Greek as the main historical languages of the mediterranean area. Romance languages have spread from the Italian peninsula, and are emblematic of southern-western Europe: the "latin arch" (Romania and Moldava are an exception on that point); modern Greek is used in Greece and Cyprus.

[edit] Greek language

[edit] Albanian language

Albanian is also a language rooted in southern Europe, spoken in the Balkanic peninsula.

[edit] South Slavic languages

Slavic languages that are now spoken in southern Europe are not rooted in the mediterranean area nor spoken mainly in those areas: In that sense those languages are not part of the linguistic definition of southern Europe, since they are logically associated with their "core". That said southern Slavic languages form a quite homogenous area, geographically separated from north Slavic languages by Hungary and Romania.

[edit] Germanic languages

Due to the English colonisation in Malta and Gibraltar, Germanic languages have a little presence in southern Europe, far from the core of Germanic languages in north-western Europe. Malta uses English as a second language in some cases (after Maltese, which still is the original and main native language). In Gibraltar, English is the official language but Spanish and llanito (mix of Andalucian, Spanish with some English) are also spoken.

[edit] Semitic languages

[edit] Turkic languages

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ World Factbook
  2. ^ Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch; Lehrbuch der Geobotanik. Pflanze und Vegetation in Raum und Zeit. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, München 2004
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