The Chinese word "土耳其" for Turkey is formed through a process of phonetic transliteration, where characters are chosen based on their pronunciation in Mandarin to approximate the sounds of the foreign name. Specifically, "土" (tǔ) represents "Tu", "耳" (ěr) corresponds to the "r" sound, and "其" (qí) mimics "key" or "ki", together producing "Tǔ'ěrqí" that echoes the English "Turkey" or the Turkish "Türkiye". This approach prioritizes auditory similarity over the literal meanings of the characters, a standard practice in Chinese for rendering foreign proper nouns.