The Chinese word 坦桑尼亚 is formed via phonetic transliteration, with each character chosen to approximate a syllable of the English name "Tanzania": 坦 (tǎn) corresponds to "Tan", 桑 (sāng) represents "zan", 尼 (ní) matches "ni", and 亚 (yà) captures the final "a", collectively producing the pronunciation Tǎnsāngníyà.