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On a library table we have two books open side by side. One is a facsimile of Bishop Diego de Landa’s Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, dated 1566. The other is a modern Yucatec Maya dictionary published in 2010. Both describe the same god: the ax-wielding, long-nosed bringer of rain. But one spells his name Chac, the other Chaac. That single letter is not a typo. It is a record of three centuries of translation, colonization, and linguistic reclamation.

There Is No Single “Correct” Spelling — Two, Not One

There Is No Single “Correct” Spelling — Two, Not One

The difference between Chac and Chaac is a result of two different writing systems applied to the same spoken word. Both are correct, but each answers a different question.

In Yucatec Maya, the god’s name is pronounced cha’ak — a single syllable with a glottal stop in the middle and a long vowel. The spoken word has two beats: cha — ak. When Spanish chroniclers in the 16th century tried to write it down, they heard a sound that felt like chac, a single syllable ending in a hard /k/. So they wrote exactly that: Chac, no double vowel, no glottal stop.

In the late 20th century, Maya linguists and cultural organizations standardized an orthography for Yucatec Maya that did represent vowel length and glottal stops. The result: Chaac (or sometimes Cha’ak), with the double “a” indicating the long vowel and the missing letter representing the glottal stop in the middle. The Modern Maya alphabet of the Academia de la Lengua Maya de Yucatán adopted this spelling.

So the same god has two written forms. Chac is the colonial version. Chaac is the indigenous standard.

Where the Two Spellings Come From: A History of Transcription

Where the Two Spellings Come From A History of Transcription

The earliest written Maya records, the Dresden Codex, the Paris Codex, and the Madrid Codex, do not spell out the god’s name in Latin letters at all. They use a glyph. That glyph is a head with a large, curved upper lip and a single tear or a scroll emanation from the eye. In Mayanist epigraphy, the glyph is read as CHAK (or Chak), based on the phonetic values of the syllabic signs. The Classic Maya texts from sites like Palenque, Tikal, and Copán (roughly 250–900 CE) depict this god, but the name was not written in alphabetic script until Europeans arrived.

The first alphabetic record comes from Fray Diego de Landa, the Spanish Franciscan bishop whose 1566 Relación is both a precious ethnographic document and an instrument of cultural destruction. Landa wrote (in Spanish) about the god “Chac”, with a single “c”. He also described the Chaac ritual, the rain ceremony that Maya farmers still perform today. Landa’s spelling was adopted by subsequent Spanish and European writers because it fit the phonology of Spanish: “chac” is a natural Spanish-sounding syllable.

But Landa’s work also burned Maya codices. He oversaw the auto-da-fé in Maní in 1562, destroying hundreds of hieroglyphic books. The written record he produced simultaneously preserved and distorted. For the next four centuries, the standard spelling in European languages was Chac.

Meanwhile, Maya communities kept the oral tradition alive. The Books of Chilam Balam, colonial-era manuscripts written in Yucatec Maya with Latin script, show both spellings. Some passages use Chac, others Chaac. The scribes were writing what they heard, and they heard the long vowel. But without a standardized orthography, the spelling varied.

The Chilam Balam of Chumayel, compiled through the 18th century, contains lines like “he ch’aakat ti’ yok’ol kab”, invoking the rain. The root chaak (rain) appears regularly. But Spanish-educated scribes often dropped the double vowel because Spanish has no phonological contrast between chac and chaac.

What the Spelling Difference Actually Means: Language as Power

The shift from Chac to Chaac is not a matter of academic preference. It is a return of linguistic authority to the Maya language. When 20th-century linguists like Alfredo Barrera Vásquez (author of the Diccionario Maya in 1980) and the Academia de la Lengua Maya de Yucatán standardized the alphabet, they chose the spelling that matched the phonetic reality of Yucatec Maya. The double “a” signals a long vowel. The invisible glottal stop (often written as an apostrophe) is present in Chaac but not in Chac.

For Maya practitioners today, the spelling Chaac affirms that the god belongs to them. It is a political act, a reclamation of a name that Spanish scribes had shortened and flattened. In ceremonial contexts, the h-men (shaman) pronounces the name with two clear syllables: CHA-ak, with a catch in the throat. That pronunciation is lost in the single-syllable Chac.

The human consequence is concrete. A Maya child learning to read in Yucatec Maya will find Chaac in their primer. A tourist buying a souvenir statue in Mérida might see Chac Mool (a different thing, a sculpted figure, not the god himself, but that is another article). The difference between the two spellings is a story of who gets to define a culture’s gods.

How You Speak to Each: Pronunciation and Ritual Context

In the rain ceremony called Cha-Chaac (a reduplication of the god’s name), the h-men calls on the four winds and four directions. The name is chanted Chaac with the long vowel held. Villagers may respond “Chaac yum” (Chaac lord). No one says Chac in that context.

Outside ritual, both spellings appear in English-language literature. The academic study The Ancient Maya by Robert J. Sharer (6th edition, 2006) uses Chaac throughout. Older works, including Sylvanus Morley’s 1915 An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Hieroglyphs, use Chac.

If you are searching for resources, the spelling matters. Books with Chac in the title are mostly pre-1980. The Chaac spelling dominates modern scholarship and Maya-language publications. For a practitioner building a relationship with this deity, learning to say Chaac properly, with the glottal stop and long vowel, shows respect for the original language. And if you have been saying Chak (rhyming with back), you are in good company. Most English speakers default to that. The actual pronunciation is closer to chahk (like chalk without the l) held for a beat longer than a single syllable.

How the Spelled Names Overlap: The God behind Both

The rain god of the Maya is not a single figure but a set of four aspects, one for each cardinal direction. Together they are the Chacob (plural). Each aspect has a color: red (east), white (north), black (west), yellow (south). The Classic Maya phrase chac xib chac means “man of the rain” and refers to the red aspect.

The name itself means “rain” in Yucatec Maya. The root chaak appears in words like chaak ha’ (rainwater), chaak che’ (rain tree), and chaak ku’ (rain temple). The god is also linked to lightning (his axe) and thunder (the sound of the axe splitting clouds). In the glyphs, the head of the rain god often bears a chac sign, a cluster of dots meaning “red” or “great.” The color red is associated with rain in Maya thought because rain was believed to come from the east, the direction of the red sun.

So whether you write Chac or Chaac, the referent is the same: the lord who opens the sky with his stone axe. But the spelling signals your allegiance, whether you are reading through a colonial lens or through the lens of Maya cultural continuity.

The Third Spelling: Chak in Epigraphy

There is a third spelling that appears in the academic literature: Chak. This comes from the transliteration of the Maya syllabary. The glyph for the rain god is often read as CHAK (using the standard CV syllabary: cha-ka). In early Mayanist work, scholars like J. Eric S. Thompson used Chak to refer to the god. The difference between Chak and Chac is minimal, just a /c/ vs /k/ convention in English.

Today, the preferred epigraphic reading is Chak (or Chaahk with a long vowel indicated by an extra a). The spelling Chaac aligns with that epigraphic understanding, because the long vowel is now recognized as phonemic. So the Triad of spelling forms, Chac, Chak, Chaac, all point to the same deity, but Chaac is the only one that represents the actual Maya pronunciation with vowel length.

FAQ

Which spelling should I use in my own practice?
If you are writing for a general audience or working with academic sources, Chac is still common. If you want to honor the Maya language and its revitalization, use Chaac. The deity will understand either.

Is there a correct pronunciation for Chaac?
Yes. Yucatec Maya pronunciation: cha’ak, a two-syllable word with a glottal stop. In English approximation: CHAH-ahk (the first vowel held slightly longer than a normal short vowel).

Why do some older books spell it “Chac” and newer books “Chaac”?
The shift reflects the 1980s standardization of the Maya alphabet by the Guatemalan government and the Academia de la Lengua Maya de Yucatán. Older sources follow the colonial convention; newer sources respect the modern orthography.

Does the spelling matter for scholarly research?
Yes. Search results differ. A database search for Chac will return mostly pre-1980 texts; Chaac brings up contemporary linguistics, ethnography, and Maya-language publications. Both are used, but Chaac is the standard in peer-reviewed work since the 1990s.

Why It Matters

Every time you choose between Chac and Chaac, you are choosing between two histories. One is the story of how a European bishop heard a foreign god’s name and wrote it down in a language that could barely contain it. The other is the story of how the Maya took that letter back, lengthened the vowel, and restored the glottal stop. The spelling difference is not a trivial issue of typography. It is the sound of a culture insisting on its own voice.

For more on the gods of Mesoamerica, see our guide to the Maya pantheon. The Chac Mool sculpture is often confused with the rain god, visit the glossary entry for the distinction. And explore the full mythology hub for Aztec, Inca, and other traditions.