Q. Hi there—I’m working on a brochure for a cruise line in which we are describing Mayan ruins and Mayan civilization. The client keeps changing Mayan to Maya, which looks strange to me outside the realm of academia. Does Chicago have a preference on this? Thanks!
A. Maya is the new Mayan! Use Mayan only to refer to the language of the Maya. You can see this usage at work at Wikipedia (e.g., in the article “Maya civilization”).