Going from Lao to Punjabi (เจชเฉฐเจเจพเจฌเฉ) has a composite linguistic distance of 80% (heuristic estimate). Below is the dimension-by-dimension breakdown.
Shared vocabulary, cognates, and loanwords.
Morphology, syntax, word order, cases.
Shared sounds and phoneme inventory.
Lao โ Gurmukhi/Arabic
Tai-Kadai โ Indo-European
The 5 languages with the lowest linguistic distance from Lao:
A quick 3-question check between Lao and Punjabi. No signup.