Janner

Historically, janner is a British slang term used to describe a person who lives within sight of the sea. More recently, the term has evolved to describe a person from the city of Plymouth in south-west Devon, and the dialect and accent of that person. Janner is to Plymouth what Scouse is to Liverpool.

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Janner can also to refer to a farmer, with a 'janner' being a stereotypical view of a farmer or person who lives in the countryside. Example: "That janner's got some fine cows!"

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When janner is used to describe a stereotypical person from Plymouth it generally has negative or pejorative connotations. Stereotypically, a janner is often clothed in poor quality clothing bought from the city's indoor market, combined with a large selection of very cheap 'gold' jewellery; a janner might live on state benefits and maintains three or four young children fathered by different men met on nights out drinking White Lightning cider at the Jester's night club in Plymouth's Union Street. Within Plymouth itself, these stereotypes are usually assigned to the area known as Swilly, and chav culture. The janner accent and mannerisms include westcountry phrases; "Where is it?" becomes "Where he be to?"; but of late there has been a creeping in of Estuary English, such that "brother" becomes "bruvver" and "Plymouth" becomes "Plymuff".

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British: The word British has several different uses. See the article on Britain for more details on the development and use of the word Britain....

Slang: Slang is the non-standard use of words in a language of a particular social group, and sometimes the creation of new words or importation of words from another language. It is a type of neologism. Slang can be described as deviating away from standard language use. Slang functions in two ways; the c...

Plymouth: Plymouth is a city in the South West of England, or alternatively the Westcountry, and is situated within the traditional county of Devon. It is located at the mouths of the rivers Plym and Tamar and at the head of one of the world's largest and most spectacular natural harbours, the Plymouth Sound....