The Chinese word 耶路撒冷 (Yēlùsālěng) for "Jerusalem" is a phonetic transcription formed through a process of transliteration, where characters are chosen primarily for their sound rather than their meaning. The characters 耶 (yē), 路 (lù), 撒 (sā), and 冷 (lěng) approximate the syllables of the name as it entered Chinese, likely through historical contact and linguistic transmission via other languages (such as English or possibly Greek/Latin forms). This is a standard method in Chinese for rendering foreign proper nouns, especially place names, resulting in a compound where the individual characters collectively mimic the pronunciation of the original term without conveying their literal meanings (e.g., 路 means "road" and 冷 means "cold", but here they are purely phonetic components).