TRANSPOSITION OF LETTERS

I should be obliged if any of your readers would give me the reason for the transposition of certain letters, chiefly, but not exclusively, in proper names, which has been effected in the course of time. The name of our Queen Bertha was, in the seventh century, written Beorhte. The Duke Brythnoth's name was frequently written Byrthnoth, in the tenth century. In Eardweard, we have dropped the a; in Ealdredesgate, the e. In Aedwini, we have dropped the first letter (or have sometimes transposed it), although, I think, we are wrong; for the given name Adwin has existed in my own family for severa…