...both have developed features that are unusual in IE languages - in the case of Irish, initial consonant mutation and in the case of Punjabi, phonemic tones.Those features are not, in themselves, dealbreakers here. Tones came from somewhere, so we could possibly reconstruct that (I'm assuming some kind of coda consonant), but vowels aren't that reliable anyway for reconstruction, so maybe we just set them aside. The initial consonant mutations make the reconstruction trickier, but just give us more options for correspondences, and instead we could focus on non-initial sounds. Together, it seems like mostly medial sounds might be most transparent. But my guess is that these features don't make this pairing much more difficult than, for example English and Hindi, or other similar pairs. (There are some pairings that would be easier, though, especially any languages that don't have as many borrowings as both of these. I wonder if Swedish and Russian, for example, would work out better.)
| 1 1sg mē̃ mé minä 2 2sg tū̃ tú sinä 3 3sg iha sé se 4 we asī̃ sinn me 5 2pl tusī̃ sibh te 6 3pl iha siad he 7 this iha seo tämä 8 that uha sin se 9 here itthē anseo täällä 10 there utthē ansin tuolla 11 who kauṇ cé kuka 12 what kī cad mikä 13 where kitthē cá missä 14 when kadõ cathain kun 15 how kivē̃ chaoi kuinka 16 not nahī̃ ní ei 17 all sārā uile kaikki 18 many bahut a lán paljon 19 some kujjha roinnt jokin 20 few virlē beagán vähän 21 other dūjā eile toinen 22 one ikka aon yksi 23 two do dó kaksi 24 three tinn trí kolme 25 four cār ceathair neljä 26 five pañj cúig viisi 27 big vaḍḍā mór iso 28 long lammā fada pitkä 29 wide cauṛā leathan leveä 30 thick moṭā tiubh paksu 31 heavy bhārī trom raskas 32 small choṭā beag pieni 33 short choṭā gearr lyhyt 34 narrow sauṛā cúng kapea 35 thin patlā tanaí ohut 36 woman ōrat bean nainen 37 man (adult male) ādamī fear mies 38 man (human being) inasān duine ihminen 39 child baccā leanbh lapsi 40 wife patnī bean chéile vaimo 41 husband patī fear céile aviomies 42 mother mātā máthair emä 43 father abbā athair isä 44 animal jānvar ainmhí eläin 45 fish macchī iasc kala 46 bird pañchī éan lintu 47 dog kuttā madra koira 48 louse jū̃ míol cnis täi 49 snake sappa nathair käärme 50 worm kīṛā péist mato 51 tree rukkha crann puu 52 forest jaṅgal coill metsä 53 stick soṭī bata keppi 54 fruit phal toradh hedelmä 55 seed bīj síol siemen 56 leaf patā duilleog lehti 57 root jaṛh fréamh juuri 58 bark (tree) khalla rúsc kuori 59 flower phulla bláth kukka 60 grass ghāh féar ruoho |
I have just remembered reading that "Punjab" is Persian "panj ab" meaning "five rivers" and that "ab" is etymologically the same as Welsh "afon" (hence all the River Avons). That prompted me to Google the Irish for river which is "abhain". A case of at least one instance of cognates being recognisable in languages separated by a long distanceYes, exactly. The question is whether enough data points like that could be gathered to verify the correspondences suggested by that pair.