The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was first published in 1888 by the International Phonetic Association to create a standardized system for transcribing the sounds of oral language. The IPA was based on a preexisting phonetic script for English and is used by linguists, language teachers, and others to indicate pronunciation in dictionaries, represent unwritten languages, and transcribe foreign language sounds. The IPA uses letters and diacritics that can be combined to precisely represent speech sounds, and the symbols are periodically updated by the International Phonetic Association.