The Chinese word "巴塞罗那" is formed via phonetic transliteration, where each character is chosen to mimic the sounds of the foreign name "Barcelona": 巴 (bā) approximates "Bar", 塞 (sāi) approximates "cel", 罗 (luó) approximates "lo", and 那 (nà) approximates "na", resulting in a sequence that replicates the original pronunciation without regard to the meanings of the individual characters.