The 13C chemical shift tensor principal values for the trigonal carbonate and thiocarbonate carbon atoms in the dialkyl carbonates, dimethyl carbonate, ethylene carbonate, and diphenyl carbonate, and in the trithiocarbonates, ethylene trithiocarbonate and dimethyl trithiocarbonate, respectively, were measured in various solid-state one-dimensional and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. Furthermore, the chemical shift tensor principal values and orientations were calculated for the corresponding isolated molecules with quantum mechanically fully optimized geometries. Proton-optimized X-ray geometries of ethylene carbonate, ethylene trithiocarbonate, and diphenyl carbonate were used in embedded ion method (EIM) calculations and in calculations on the isolated molecules to obtain the theoretical principal values and to assign the chemical shift tensor orientations in these three compounds. Considerable improvement in the correlation between the experimental and calculated principal values is obtained when the electrostatic crystal potentials are included in EIM calculations. The chemical shift tensor orientations and principal values obtained for the dialkyl compounds in this study complement the previous data on a series of ionic potassium carbonates and thiocarbonates.