Janner is an English regionalnickname associated withPlymouth both as a noun and as an adjective for the local accent anddialect. In 1987Cyril Tawney, in his bookGrey Funnel Lines, described its meaning as "a person fromDevon", deriving from Cousin Jan (the Devon form ofJohn), but "more particularly innaval circles anyone from the Plymouth area".[1] The term was also used for members of theDevonshire and Dorset Regiment.[2]
From March 1902 until November 1905 theDevon and Exeter Gazette ran a series "The Talk at Uncle Tom Cobleigh's Club", partly comic, partly serious, written in the Devonshire dialect. A second series was created by A. J. Coles and published in the(Illustrated) Western Weekly News from July 1905 until the paper ceased publication in October 1939. The series was continued in theWestern Times and Gazette until 1964. Both series included the characterJan Stewer (a character fromWidecombe Fair) who recounted his experiences of the modern world inDevon dialect.[3] Coles's mother was fromWilland in Devon. The first series sparked a popular correspondence from Devon natives around the world written in affectionate[clarification needed] dialect as recollected at the time, the character even appearing on the BBC in the 1920s.
'Alf apound of flour andlard,
Makes a lovelyclacker,
Just enough for you and me,
Oh Brother Janner,
Oh 'ow 'appy uz shall be!,
When uz gets to theWestcountry!,
Whur theoggies grows on trees,
Oh Brother Janner.
Because of the changes in the local economy in Plymouth over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, from theRoyal Navy being the major employer to Plymouth being auniversity city housing a large number of students from outside the city, the term has developed an additional secondarypejorative sense describing the locals.[citation needed]
TheMember of Parliament forPlymouth, 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?" TheExpress on Sunday reported her reply:
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".[5]
For many years there was a cartoon in thePlymouth Evening Herald entitled 'The Janners'. Many pamphlets circulate with mischievous amusing and sometimes erotic anthologies and there are short dictionaries of Janner vocabulary, e.g. the Janner TextBook.[6]
The term features in the football teamPlymouth Argyle supporters' chants, particularly its variant on the folksongOggy Land,[7] and in 2010 it was used in a television advertisement forAviva Car Insurance in whichPaul Whitehouse as a Plymouth Argyle supporter driving to an away match exhorts a potential passenger to "geddon you Janner".[8][9] In April 2012 a newrugby league trophy called the Barum Janner cup was introduced for competition matches between Barnstaple'sNorth Devon Raiders and thePlymouth Titans. The cup's name is a combination of the nicknames for inhabitants of the two places.[10]
