With the further weakening of a language it has limited social function, it tends to be spoken only by older people and the opportunities for its use diminish. Younger people cease to speak the language apart from a few words and phrases. At this stage the language is in steep decline. Its continued loss in value and utility within the community speeds its demise. In the final stages of loss only a handful of elderly speakers remain and, unless a large scale language reversal were to occur, the language as a spoken living language will die with these people.
Some linguists regard such large scale reversals as highly unlikely.
A dead, or extinct, language is one with no living speakers remaining. Dictionaries, word lists, some spoken words and phrases may survive but it is virtually impossible for the language to ever again become a living means of full everyday communication. Remaining words and phrases, however few, may still retain considerable significance to those whose ancestral language they come from. They provide some group identification, spiritual meaning, and a link with the past culture. It is perhaps the importance of remaining fragments of language to their owners that results in some people saying they speak language when in fact they are unable to construct sentences or only speak with minimal fluency.