The Chinese word "巴尔的摩" (Bā'ěrdémó) is a direct phonetic transliteration of the English city name "Baltimore", formed through a process where individual Chinese characters are selected not for their meanings but for how closely their pronunciations approximate the sounds of the English syllables. Specifically, "巴" (bā) mimics "Bal", "尔" (ěr) represents the "ti" sound (with a common 'er' sound used for terminal 'l' or weak vowel sounds), "的" (de) stands for the short "more" syllable "də", and "摩" (mó) captures the "more" ending, collectively creating a recognizable sonic counterpart while conforming to the standard Chinese convention of using "的" in transliterations for the common English syllable "-tle" or "-dal".