The Chinese word "西班牙" is formed through phonetic transcription, where each character is selected solely for its sound to approximate the foreign name "España". The character "西" (xī) mimics the "Es" or initial sound, "班" (bān) corresponds to the "pa" or middle syllable, and "牙" (yá) represents the "ña" or final sound, resulting in the pronunciation "Xībānyá" for Spain. This process uses characters as phonetic symbols, disregarding their original meanings.