The West Germanic languages such as English largely lost the alternation because of the effects of the West Germanic gemination, but the gemination itself was conditioned only by "-j-" and not by "-ij-", so that the alternation is indirectly preserved. There is also some evidence that the alternation was preserved and adapted to the new syllable structure that resulted from the gemination. In the oldest attested languages, medial syllabic "-ij-" tends to be lost in the same way as in Old Norse, while nonsyllabic "-j-" (occurring only after "-r-", which was not geminated) is preserved. Compare for example: