Hello all,

I've written a short (approximately half a page) story, and I would be extremely grateful for some assistance with it. The narrator is an African American who speaks the lect that has sometimes been called "Black English Vernacular" and "African American Vernacular English." I am not a speaker of this lect, and while I have done my best to try to replicate it, I am sure that there are a lot of subtleties that I am missing, and that what I wrote would look really fake to anyone who actually does speak it.

If you are a speaker of this lect, would you be willing to help me make the make the narrative sound more authentic? Thanks.

Joy,
Lynn

Oh dear, glad I stumbled upon this!

Native AAVE speaker, and even did some research for my Master's into the dialect. Bring it on! (Or in AAVE, "let's do 'dis!")

Way cool, Magical. Thank you! When I hadn't gotten any offers after a few days, I posted a different version of the story ( The Pandhandler's Tale). (I removed much of my attempts at AAVE in that version lest their lack of authenticity be taken as offensive in any way.) I still have my original version of the story, though, and I would love to have the archived version be closer to my original story.

I'll send you a PM with the original story. Please tear it apart as much as necessary to have it ring true. Thank you!

Joy,
Lynn

Hey guys! I know it's been a LONG time since I've written anything... I have a story I'm working on about a reporter who gets injured in an accidental drone strike in Afghanistan, loses her memory of the incident and ends up an unfinished governmental experiment of sorts... then, she gets sent home by the doctor who worked on her guilty about his role in everything, and gets sent to work with her back in NYC without her knowing what had happened.

Any takers?

I just realized I tagged onto someone else's post. Sorry! Told you it's been awhile. Admin, feel free to move this post.

(About 18K words so far)