Language Evolution and Computation Bibliography

We propose a paleoeconomic coevolutionary explanation for the origin of speech in modern humans. The coevolutionary process, in which trade facilitates speech and speech facilitates trade, gives rise to multiple stable trajectories. While a `trade-speech' equilibrium is not an inevitable outcome for modern humans, we find it is a relatively likely scenario given our species evolved in Africa under climatic conditions supporting relatively high population densities. The origin of human speech is not independent of economic institutions-the economics of early human trade can provide additional insight to help explain the physiological emergence of human speech.