what is this phonetic script called

It has no name that I know of. Each individual dictionary usually has their own scheme. I think you seriously overestimate the number of people (English speakers, at least) who understand IPA.

No, it's just the phonetic spelling. Unless you're learning a language or are a linguistics nerd, you're not gonna know ipa

It's probably only helpful to native speakers, it's how most dictionaries describe how a word is pronounced where the bolded or capitalized syllable is the stressed one and the "phonetic spelling" is based on the default pronunciation of those letter groups. Note that for many words different phonetic spelling has to be used depending on if it's US or UK or whatever version of English.

It has various names but I've most commonly seen it called either phonetic spelling or pronunciation respelling.

No idea but the pronunciation is clear to me based on the script. That's how people who don't know IPA would spell it.

99% (or more) of people don't know IPA. For native English speakers who instinctively understand what those spellings would sound like in English, that actually is very helpful for learning how to pronounce things. You're searching on English Google in English. They're not going to assume you are learning the language, and they're going to offer you the tool that would be most helpful for most English speakers.

it doesn't have a specific name also there are many ways words can be respelled

No1 knows IPA. Most ppl googling how to pronounce it already speak english and are likely native speakers, not linguists or polyglots. And the script is pretty intuitive.

Most folks don't know IPA, at least here in the US. So what is done to explain how to pronounce things is to spell words out, syllable by syllable, phonetically. To me, that is a clear explanation of how to pronounce that word, because the default pronunciation of each part is obvious, and the stressed syllable is bolded. The closest we get in school is basic marks to note long and short vowels when we are learning to read - **nŏt** vs **nōte**, for example. Even when we study foreign languages in school, IPA is not usually taught. I had years of Spanish from 8th-12th grade, and never once was IPA even mentioned. I'm learning Welsh right now as an adult, and still nobody has brought up IPA. It's really a niche thing for serious linguistic study here - not for standard language classes.

I'm a native English speaker but I couldn't figure out how to pronounce the last syllable at first because "sow" (to plant seeds) and "sow" (female pig) are heteronyms. Thinking more about it though, I think they would have written "soh" if it were supposed to be pronounced that way.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_respelling_for_English

As a native English speaker, our language is a mess and we cannot assume we know how to pronounce a new word based solely on its spelling. Simplified phonetic English is more useful and intuitive to Americans than IPA since most of us are monolingual and have never encountered IPA.

It's called phonetic spelling. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/writing-techniques/phonetic-spelling/ IPA can be inaccurate and confusing especially between modern or traditional transcription, and dialectal variations. Many of the symbols are not at all intuitive to native speakers. If you asked someone on the street to guess at what they might represent you're more likely to get responses like- **ɔ:** no idea maybe the kr sound at the start of Christmas (definitely not the **a** in ball) **ʌ** based on math experience, definitely L sound as in like (definitely not the **o** in monkey) **ɔɪ** no idea maybe the si sound in cinema (but definitely not the **oy** in toy) **tʃ** the end of its/it's (definitely not the **ch** in chat) **dʒ** the dz sound at the end of heads and similar plurals (definitely not **g** in giraffe or **j** in jam)

Phonetic respelling

I hate it

This is called English respelling, or phonetic respelling, and it is most helpful to native English speakers.

I want to be the first person in the game to say “that’s French.”

I would call it “a little troublesome”. The word “sow” has two different pronunciations in English with different meanings. Both are used mostly by farmers, which is a bit ironic.

the problem with this system is "own" is still vague in its own sense. For example, here "sow" represents the oh sound as in go or so, but in the word sour, "sow" is natural to explain the first syllable as in wow or how. It seems like "kleh - muhn - sow' should be "kleh - muhn - soh", but even then, soh could be the first syllable of soccer, which is pronounced very differently. This system is very deeply flawed.

It's designed for native English speakers who already understand how those syllables would be pronounced

It’s a pretty bad approximation of Clemenceau too

It's like me trying to learn Thai. I need a pronunciation guide for the pronunciation guides.

Phonetic respelling is sort of catch-all term for these "systems."

this is how it's written in many dictionaries and glossaries that native speakers grow up learning from. these resources are also supposed to be helpful to us, not just learners.