Alexander Vovin “Towards a New Classification of Tungusic Languages” (1993)
This paper [Vovin, Alexander. "Towards a new classification of Tungusic languages." Eurasian Studies Yearbook 65 (1993): 99-113] is an attempt at a lexicostatistical classification of Tungusic. Based on percentages of cognates in 100 word Swadesh lists, Vovin proposes the following classification:
A strikingly unusual feature of this tree is the position of Even as the second language to branch off after Manchu. Usually, Even is placed in the same branch with Evenki, Solon, Oroqen and Negidal.
Indeed, Even mostly shows lower cognate percentages with other Tungusic varieties than any other language save Manchu:
It would be interesting to check the accuracy of Vovin’s wordlists, but I will not try to do it here. Instead, we can look at some of those items of the Swadesh lists where Even differs from other languages. These are the very items which cause lower cognate percentages.
‘blood‘: Even huneel [actually huŋeel] vs. reflexes of *sääksä in all other languages (Manchu senggi contains a different suffix, but has the same root)
‘bone‘: Even ikeri with a cognate in Negidal vs. reflexes of *gïramsa in all other languages (Manchu giranngi contains a different suffix, but has the same root)
‘die‘: Even køke= vs. reflexes of *bö(d)- in all other languages, including Manchu
‘drink‘: Even kool= vs. reflexes of *umï- in all other languages, including Manchu
‘ear‘: Even korat with an apparent cognate in Udihe vs. reflexes of *sian in all other languages, including Manchu
‘full‘: Even milteree vs. reflexes of *ǯalo- in all other languages save Udihe
‘sleep‘: Even huklee= vs. reflexes of *au- in all other languages, including Manchu
‘sun‘: Even nøølten vs. reflexes of *sigöön in all other languages, including Manchu (Evenki, Solon & Negidal also reflect another root: *dïlačaa)
This is not a pattern we would expect from a second outlier in the family. One could rather expect that Even would share some archaisms with Manchu as against innovations in the common ancestor of all remaining languages. There are no such cases in the Swadesh list. Instead, we see Manchu sharing common words with the rest of the family except Even. Given that Manchu is the first outlier in Vovin’s classification (as well as in most other classifications), words shared by Manchu with other languages are by definition archaisms, while isolated Even words must be innovations.
The position of Even in Vovin’s tree is clearly erroneous. The reason for this error is the fact that lexicostatistics does not distinguish between archaisms and innovations, so that a lexically innovative language may look like an outlier in a family.