xneuromancer,
I don't know how it could have
changed for an existing dictionary, but the pronunciation you see is given in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA,
http://www.langsci.ucl.ac.uk/ipa/ipachart.html) and it is
not nonsensical at all, on the contrary. The IPA is arguably the best way to specify pronunciation in any language. It is widely used outside of the US, but even the Merriam Webster Learner's Dictionary is using it now (
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/).
Cheers, Mixx