südliche

Südliche is a German term that serves as the attributive form of the adjective südlich (south, southern) when it appears as part of geographic names or descriptions. In practice, it is used to indicate the southern part of a larger region and is common in toponymy and administrative designations.

In formal place names, Südliche often begins a compound name. A well-known example is Südliche Weinstraße, a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, whose designation literally means the Southern Wine Route. The form also appears in descriptive labels for city areas, such as “die südlichen Stadtteile” (the southern city districts) or “die Südlichen Vorstädte” (the southern suburbs), where it functions as a directional descriptor rather than a fixed proper name.

Linguistically, Südliche is the inflected form of the adjective südlich; its ending changes according to the gender, number, and case of the noun it modifies. It is used in German-speaking regions, including Germany, Austria, and parts of Switzerland, whenever a southern part is being identified. Because it is part of proper names or standardized labels, capitalization and hyphenation follow the rules of German orthography.

In summary, Südliche serves as a geographic descriptor embedded in place names and regional labels to denote southern portions of areas, and it appears across German-speaking contexts wherever such southern designation is needed. A prominent example is the district name Südliche Weinstraße in Germany.