Janner

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Janner is a British regional nickname associated with people from Plymouth, both as a noun and as an adjective for the local accent and colloquialisms.

Cyril Tawney's Grey Funnel Lines describes its meaning as "a person from Devon", deriving from Cousin Jan (the Devon form of John), but "more particularly in naval circles anyone from the Plymouth area".^[1]

With the changes in the local economy in Plymouth over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, from the Royal Navy being the major employer to being a university city housing a large number of students from outside the city, the term has developed an additional secondary pejorative sense describing the locals.

Some people nonetheless still have doubts about the specific application and treat Janner as a term that applies to all waterside 'yokels' from any West Country or even south coast port.

It features in the football team Plymouth Argyle supporters' chants, particularly its variant on the folksong Oggy Land.^[2]

The Member of Parliament for Devonport, Alison Seabeck showed her ignorance of the term in 2005 when, while still a candidate, she was asked by the local paper: "What is a Janner?" The Express on Sunday reported her reply:^[3]

The flustered candidate wailed: "I don't know. You're not going to print this, are you?" Unfortunately they did. The answer is a "Plymothian".

Many pamphlets circulate with mischievous amusing and sometimes erotic anthologies and there are short dictionaries of Janner vocabulary, e.g. the Janner TextBook.^[4]

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