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Thelma Dorfman Sullivan (18 August 1918—11 August 1981) was an American paleographer, linguist and translator, regarded as one of the foremost scholars in the 20th century of the Classical Nahuatl language. Significant works include a compendium of Nahuatl grammar (1976), noted as the most comprehensive treatment of its day, and her translation of Bernardino de Sahagún's 16th-century text known as the Primeros Memoriales, completed by colleagues after her death.

Life and education

Thelma Sullivan was born Pearl Thelma Dorfman to Rose Tannenbaum and Irving Dorfman in New York City in 1918.. She attended Julia Richman High School, an all-girls school on the upper east side of Manhattan, and then went on to Hood College, where she majored in English. She did graduate work studying languages at the City College of New York and Johns Hopkins University. She married businessman Dennis Sullivan and they moved to Mexico City in 1948, where they lived until her death from cancer at age 62.

Career

In New York City Sullivan worked as a professional writer in radio and theater. She continued to write after moving to Mexico City, contributing to the English language newspaper The News. While in Mexico City, Sullivan also worked as a Cultural Assistant to the U.S. Embassy. In this position she was asked to translate some Aztec texts documented by Bernardino de Sahagún from Spanish into English.

References

• Broda, Johanna (1987). "The provenience of the offerings: tribute and cosmovisión". In Elizabeth Hill Boone (ed.). The Aztec Templo Mayor: a symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 8th and 9th October 1983. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. pp. 211–256. ISBN 0-88402-149-1. OCLC 13332549.
• Josserand, J. Kathryn; Karin Dakin, eds. (1988). Smoke and Mist: Mesoamerican Studies in Memory of Thelma D. Sullivan. BAR International series, no. 402. Vol. 2 vols. sections coordinated by H.B. Nicholson, Doris Heyden, Karin Dakin and Nicholas A. Hopkins. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports (B.A.R.). ISBN 0-86054-517-2. OCLC 18746406.
• Rosenthal, Jane M. (January 1983). "Thelma D. Sullivan (1918-1981)". International Journal of American Linguistics. 49 (1): 87–88. doi:10.1086/465768. ISSN 0020-7071. OCLC 479777284. S2CID 144756551.
• Sahagún, Bernardino de (1997) [ca.1558–61]. Primeros Memoriales. Civilization of the American Indians series vol. 200, part 2. Thelma D. Sullivan (English trans. and paleography of Nahuatl text), with H.B. Nicholson, Arthur J.O. Anderson, Charles E. Dibble, Eloise Quiñones Keber, and Wayne Ruwet (completion, revisions, and ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-2909-9. OCLC 35848992.