The Chinese word "匹兹堡" is formed through phonetic transliteration of the English name "Pittsburgh", where each character is chosen to approximate the sound: "匹" (pǐ) for "Pitt", "兹" (zī) for the "s" or "z" sound in the middle, and "堡" (bǎo) for "-burgh", with "堡" also semantically meaning "fort" or "burg", aligning with the original suffix's meaning.