written in language

CURIE: gmeow:writtenInLanguage
IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/writtenInLanguage
Category: property
Defined by: gmeow:slices/language
Box roles: RBox role (What is this?)

Relates an information object — an expression, a document, a source tree, an inscription reading — to a first-class gmeow:Language it is written in. The registry-independent replacement for flat inLanguage tags: the object is a Language IRI, never a code literal (codes are alignments via gmeow:languageCode). Non-functional: content mixes languages, and a codebase uses several.

Structure

Property shape: object property; gmeow:InformationObject -> gmeow:Language

Practical Pattern

Use gmeow:writtenInLanguage from gmeow:InformationObject to gmeow:Language when the relationship itself belongs in the native GMEOW graph.

Example Snippets

These snippets are generated from canonical slice examples and trimmed to the Turtle blocks where this term appears.

Multilingual Document

Source: slices/core/language/examples/multilingual-document.ttl
Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-core-language-examples-multilingual-document

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: language as a first-class entity. A gmeow:Language is a
# reified individual carrying its gmeow:bcp47Tag — not a bare string column — so a
# document can be gmeow:writtenInLanguage SEVERAL co-equal languages at once
# (a bilingual manual), with no primary language privileged. The Language objects
# are minted (there is no closed enum of languages); the document is an
# InformationObject, the domain of gmeow:writtenInLanguage.
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/language/> .
@prefix rdfs:  <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .

# --- A bilingual document: two co-equal languages, neither primary. The title is
#     carried as separate co-equal language-tagged literals, one per language.
ex:manual a gmeow:InformationObject ;
    gmeow:title             "Installation Manual"@en , "インストールマニュアル"@ja ;
    gmeow:writtenInLanguage gmeow:langEnglish , ex:japanese .

Common Companion Terms

gmeow:InformationObject, gmeow:Language

Usage Advice

Use when

Use to state the language(s) an information object is written in by pointing at first-class gmeow:Language IRIs — the registry-independent replacement for flat inLanguage code tags, covering documents, expressions, source trees, and inscription readings alike.

Avoid when

Avoid giving it a code literal as object (the object is always a Language IRI; codes live on the language via gmeow:languageCode) and avoid forcing a single language — multilingual content and polyglot codebases name several, so it stays non-functional.

How to use

Reference one or more gmeow:Language individuals (a gmeow:ProgrammingLanguage for software); when the per-language extent, role, or confidence must be first-class, promote to a reified usage relator rather than overloading this flat property.

Examples

ex:report gmeow:writtenInLanguage gmeow:langFrench, gmeow:langEnglish.