When was ‘International Phonetic Alphabet’ (IPA) developed
and promulgated?

The correct answer is 1888.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was developed and officially promulgated in the year 1888. Let's walk through the key historical context to understand why this date is correct.

Background — The Need for IPA:
In the 19th century, language teachers and linguists across Europe faced a major challenge: there was no consistent, universal system to represent the sounds of human speech across different languages. Each language used its own spelling conventions, which made it very difficult to teach pronunciation accurately, especially for foreign language learners.

The Founders — The International Phonetic Association:
A French phonetician named Paul Passy took the lead in addressing this problem. In 1886, he founded the organization that would later be known as the International Phonetic Association (originally called the Dhi Fonètik Tîtcerz' Asociecon — the Phonetic Teachers' Association). The association brought together language educators and phoneticians committed to creating a standardized phonetic notation system.

Development and Promulgation — 1888:
After two years of collaborative work and refinement, the International Phonetic Association officially published and promulgated the International Phonetic Alphabet in 1888. This was the first version of the alphabet, designed to provide a standardized set of symbols — one symbol per sound — that could be applied to any spoken language in the world. The key principle was: one unique symbol for one unique sound, regardless of which language used that sound.

Why the other options are incorrect:
- 1868 — This date is too early; the phoneticians who created IPA had not yet organized themselves into the necessary association.
- 1878 — Still predates the founding of the International Phonetic Association itself (1886), so the IPA could not have been promulgated then.
- 1978 — This is far too late; by 1978, the IPA had already been in widespread global use for nearly 90 years and had undergone multiple revisions.

Summary:
The International Phonetic Alphabet was developed and promulgated in 1888 by the International Phonetic Association under the leadership of Paul Passy. It remains the global standard for phonetic transcription to this day, used in dictionaries, linguistics, language teaching, and speech science worldwide.