The work of Derek Nurse in historical linguistics and language change, as applied to the Bantu languages of eastern Africa, has produced new insights on the classification, historical reconstruction and typology of these languages. He has extended our knowledge of the varieties of change, and of the types of features that can be transferred from one language to another. He has done pioneering work on the interface of linguistics, archaeology, and history, and is the coauthor of two handbooks on the history of Swahili society and language that are standard reference works wherever the language is studied.