The low temperature heat capacities of 13 group IV chalcogenides are examined. The heat capacity of crystals with largely isotropic structure (GeTe, SnSe, SnTe, PbS, PbSe, PbTe) can be represented within ±3% by a three-dimensional Debye function (θ3=205, 230, 175, 225, 150 and 130, respectively). The heat capacity of crystals with anisotropic structures (GeS, GeSe, SnS, GeS2 and SnS2) could only be represented by pairs of two-dimensional Debye functions for the longitudinal and transverse lattice vibrations (error ±0.5 to 3%;θ2(l)=505, 345, 400, 705, 480 and 570, respectively, andθ2(t)=200, 185, 160, 175, 100 and 265, respectively).