Tolkien indicated that ✶[ɣ] become [w] when appearing between [u] and another vowel, and similarly became [j] when appearing between [i] and another vowel (SD/420). This is an exception to the rule that [ɣ] vanished initially and between vowels and therefore must have happened before this change. However, it must have happened after medial [w] and [j] vanished before [u] and [i], otherwise this change would have had no noticeable effect.