The Chinese word 埃塞俄比亚 is formed through phonetic transliteration, where each character is selected to approximate the sounds of the English name "Ethiopia": 埃 (āi) corresponds to "E", 塞 (sāi) to "thi", 俄 (é) to "o", 比 (bǐ) to "bi", and 亚 (yà) to "a", resulting in a sequential sound-based representation.