Multilingual Linked Open Data Patterns

Inter-language identity links

Description

Add an owl:sameAs link between two resources that refer to the same entity but contain data in different languages.

Context

When dealing with resources in a multilingual linked data environment, it may be necessary to keep those resources separate and identifiable.

Example

Suppose we have information about Armenia in English which is identified by http://hy.example.org#Հայաստան while the URI http://es.example.org#Armenia contains information about Armenia in Spanish. We can declare that both URIs refer to the same thing by asserting:

<http://hy.example.org#Հայաստան>
  owl:sameAs
    <http://en.example.org#Armenia> .

Discussion

owl:sameAs is a well-known property which is supported by several linked data applications.

However, the semantics of owl:sameAs has some implications which may be undesirable. For example, it could be that the information about Armenia in the different languages comes from different sources and thus, contains different data. Using owl:sameAs can then render inconsistencies.

See also

This pattern is a special case of the Equivalence links .

The new version ITS 2.0 contains categories that are format neutral, supporting both XML, HTML and the RDF based NIF (NLP Interchange Format). It also gives support to localization workflows like those expressed in XLIFF.