“…This, they propose, is the key to the long tail of obsolescence: 'some outgoing variants are actually preserved as a result of their rarity. Once a variant becomes infrequent in everyday usage, any use becomes marked, and this markedness makes the variant useful as a resource for stylistic and/or identity work' (Van Herk & Childs, 2015, p. 193; see also Joseph, 1997, Castro-Chao, 2022. 4 Obsolescent forms thus naturally become available for use in language play (van Compernolle, 2008, p. 331, Childs & Van Herk, 2014Bohmann et al, 2021; see also Brook & Blamire, 2023).…”