The word 加利福尼亚 (Jiālìfúníyà) is formed through a process of phonetic translation, specifically designed to transcribe the sound of the foreign name "California" into Chinese. It is built character-by-character, where each Chinese syllable is chosen solely for how closely its pronunciation approximates one syllable of the English word: "Ja" becomes 加 (Jiā), "li" becomes 利 (lì), "for" becomes 福 (fú), "ni" becomes 尼 (ní), and "a" becomes 亚 (yà). The characters are combined sequentially to create a continuous phonetic mirror of the original name, resulting in a cohesive, multi-character term that sounds recognizably similar to "California" when spoken aloud.