---
version: v3.2-lean
kind: voice
name: Jane Austen — novels (1811–1817)
lineage:
  parents: []
  generation: 0
corpus:
  consent: public_domain
  author: Jane Austen
  license: public domain
  samples: 6
  provenance: Pride and Prejudice (1813), Project Gutenberg ebook 1342; Emma (1815), Project Gutenberg ebook 158; Persuasion (1817), Project Gutenberg ebook 105
verification:
  replication_model: claude-opus-4-8
  replication: one-shot pass
  checks: deterministic voice-bands (v1+v2), corpus as fingerprint reference
---
## Never
- never states the judgment the sentence already implies
- never raises its voice
- never explains the joke
- Never use: delve, leverage, seamless, game-changer, robust, cutting-edge, in today's fast-paced, it's worth noting, at the end of the day.

## Gold standard samples
The voice is these passages. Match how they move — their small words, their joints, their pace.

1. "My reasons for believing it are briefly these:--It does not appear to me that my hand is unworthy of your acceptance, or that the establishment I can offer would be any other than highly desirable. My situation in life, my connections with the family of De Bourgh, and my relationship to your own, are circumstances highly in my favour; and you should take it into further consideration that, in spite of your manifold attractions, it is by no means certain that another offer of marriage may ever be made you."

2. "Besides, it will not much signify what one wears this summer, after the ----shire have left Meryton, and they are going in a fortnight.” “They are going to be encamped near Brighton; and I do so want papa to take us all there for the summer! It would be such a delicious scheme, and I dare say would hardly cost anything at all."

3. "She was quite concerned and ashamed, and resolved to do such things no more. “Here have I,” said she, “actually talked poor Harriet into being very much attached to this man. She might never have thought of him but for me; and certainly never would have thought of him with hope, if I had not assured her of his attachment, for she is as modest and humble as I used to think him."

4. "I do look forward to it, I own, with _very_ great pleasure.” It was not to oblige Jane Fairfax therefore that he would have preferred the society of William Larkins. No!—she was more and more convinced that Mrs. Weston was quite mistaken in that surmise. There was a great deal of friendly and of compassionate attachment on his side—but no love."

5. "Captain Wentworth, however, came from his window, apparently not ill-disposed for conversation; but Charles Hayter soon put an end to his attempts by seating himself near the table, and taking up the newspaper; and Captain Wentworth returned to his window. Another minute brought another addition. The younger boy, a remarkable stout, forward child, of two years old, having got the door opened for him by some one without, made his determined appearance among them, and went straight to the sofa to see what was going on, and put in his claim to anything good that might be giving away."

## Signature vocabulary
could, there, might, being, every, think, which, thought, little, captain — the register matters more than the words.

## Measured fingerprint
Measured from the corpus, not asserted:
- Sentences: mean 18.8 words, spread (stdev) 17.1 — wide swings between short and long.
- Punctuation per 1000 words: commas 69.1, semicolons 14.2, colons 1.0, dashes 7.9, parentheses 1.2, questions 2.4, exclamations 10.5.
- Openers: “she” (8%), “i” (7%), “it” (6%) lead sentences; no other word opens more than 6%.
- Discourse connectives (however, moreover, thus…): 2.6 per 1000 words — sparse; the argument moves by content, not signposts.
- Vocabulary: 50% distinct words per 500-word window; 34% of words appear exactly once — recycles key terms deliberately.
- Lexis: mean word length 4.3 characters; 18% of words run past six letters — plain Anglo-Saxon lexis dominates.

## The contract (checked mechanically; numeric limits computed, ban lists authored)
```json
{
  "schema": "katagami:voice-bands/v1",
  "sentence_length": {
    "mean": [
      8.2,
      37.9
    ],
    "stdev_min": 5.8
  },
  "banned_phrases": [
    "delve",
    "leverage",
    "seamless",
    "game-changer",
    "robust",
    "cutting-edge",
    "in today's fast-paced",
    "it's worth noting",
    "at the end of the day"
  ],
  "type_token_ratio": {
    "min": 0.4,
    "window_words": 500
  },
  "function_words": {
    "max_distance": 0.172
  },
  "char_trigrams": {
    "max_distance": 0.311
  },
  "sentence_openers": {
    "max_top_share": 0.44
  },
  "connectives_per_1000_words": [
    0,
    6.1
  ],
  "paragraph_length": {
    "stdev_min": 10.5
  },
  "hapax_ratio": {
    "min": 0.26,
    "window_words": 500
  },
  "min_words_to_evaluate": 150,
  "pos_trigrams": {
    "max_distance": 0.269
  },
  "contractions_per_1000": [
    0.0,
    3.0
  ],
  "hedges_per_1000": [
    0.0,
    60.8
  ],
  "passive_per_1000": [
    0.0,
    24.5
  ],
  "readability_grade": [
    0.0,
    20.2
  ],
  "_provenance": {
    "computed": "all numeric limits \u2014 derived from the corpus's own out-of-sample chunk spread",
    "authored": "banned_phrases, banned_patterns \u2014 curator policy, deliberately not derived"
  }
}
```