Three-piece carve-up:
克 (kè) for the hard 'C-/K-' onset,
尔 (ěr) for the syllabic '-r-/-l-' middle,
顿 (dùn, 'pause') for the standard '-ton/-tin' ending. The
克尔- prefix is highly productive (
克尔特 Celtic,
米尔克尔 Merkel), and
顿 is the universal '-ton' suffix. Note the apostrophe in pinyin (Kè'ěrdùn) marks the syllable boundary so it isn't read as 'kěrdùn'.
