Gurmukhi script

Origin

The Gurmukhi alphabet was devised during the 16th century by Guru Nanak, the first Sikh guru, and popularised by Guru Angad, the second Sikh guru. It was modelled on the Landa alphabet. The name Gurmukhi means "from the mouth of the Guru".

Notable Features

This is a syllabic alphabet in which all consonants have an inherent vowel. Diacritics, which can appear above, below, before or after the consonant they belong to, are used to change the inherent vowel.
When they appear at the beginning of a syllable, vowels are written as independent letters.
When certain consonants occur together, special conjunct symbols are used which combine the essential parts of each letter.
Punjabi is a tonal language with three tones. These are indicated in writing using the voiced aspirates consonants (gh, dh, bh, etc) and the intervocal h.

Used to write:

Panjabi or Punjabi, an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 60 million people in Pakistan and the Indian state of Panjab. In Pakistan Panjabi is written with a version of the Arabic script known as Shahmukhi (see below).