The Chinese word 加泰罗尼亚 is formed through phonetic transliteration, where each character is selected to approximate the sounds of the foreign name "Catalonia": 加 (jiā) corresponds to "Ca", 泰 (tài) to "ta", 罗 (luó) to "lo", and 尼亚 (ní yà) to "nia", combining to replicate the original pronunciation without conveying meaning from the individual characters.