Long vowels could arise by other mechanisms. One of these is known as "compensatory lengthening"; this occurred when consonants formerly present were lost: "maid" is the modern descendant of Old English "mægde". In this example, the "g" actually became a glide , so in a sense, the length of the consonant stayed where it always had been, and there was no "compensation." The silent rule became available to represent long vowels in writing that arose from other sources; Old English "brŷd", representing *"bruʒd-i-", became Modern English "bride".