Using productontology in Schema.org for another language?

Question

I have a site that is in two languages, German and English. For each version of the site I am defining different schema.org markups. For example, the descriptions provided are in German or English depending on the domain (I am using subdomains for each language.)

Specifying different schemas hasn't been an issue until I went to add productontology to one of them. Here is the issue:

This is the productontology for the English site:

http://www.productontology.org/id/Wine_bar

The German equivalent is:

http://www.productontology.org/id/Vinothek

Here is the issue I foresee, and would like to know the best way to handle it. The first productontology, Wine_bar is correct, however, if you access Vinothek on the English wikipedia it has a different meaning than the German wikipedia.

This leads me to my question: What is the best way to handle productontology for a different language?

In my case, should I use Wine_bar for both languages?

While reading the productontology website I saw an faq that specifically stated this:

... Wikipedia entry in the English(!) ...

The English(!) is bolded on that page, not by me. Since I read this I assume I should use the English wikipedia page regardless of the language.

Am I correct? What is the best way to handle productontology for other languages?

Answer 1

The fact that http://www.productontology.org/id/Vinothek works (it redirects to http://www.productontology.org/id/Enoteca) is not because it’s called "Vinothek" in German, but because the English Wikipedia has a redirect from Vinothek to Enoteca.

The PTO only uses the terms from the English Wikipedia:

You can use this ontology to describe any object for which a matching entry in the English Wikipedia exists.

So you should use pto:Wine_bar or pto:Enoteca (whichever applies in your case) for the English as well as the German page.