No form of verbal corruption is more frequent throughout the rural
districts of England than that produced by the transposition of letters,
especially of consonants: such words as _world_, _wasp_, _great_, are,
as every one knows, still ordinarily (though less frequently than a
dozen years ago) pronounced _wordle_, _waps_, _gurt_. So with names of
places: thus Cholsey (Berks.) is called Chosley.
The dropping of a letter is to be accounted for in a like manner.
Probably the word was first _pronounced_ short, and when the ear became
accustomed to the shortened sound, the superfluous (or rather
unpronounced) letter would be dropped in writing. In proper names, to
which your correspondent particularly refers, we observe this going on
extensively in the present day. Thus, in Caermarthen and Caernarvon,
though the _e_ is etymologically of importance, it is now very generally
omitted--and that by "those in authority:" in the Ordnance Maps,
Parliamentary "Blue Books," and Poor-law documents, those towns are
always spelled Carnarvon, Carmarthen. A still more striking instance is
that of a well-known village on the Thames, opposite Runnimede. Awhile
back it was commonly spelled Wyrardisbury; now it appears on the
time-tables of the South-Western Railway (and perhaps elsewhere)
Wraysbury, which very nearly represents the local pronunciation.
It is, perhaps, worth while to remark that letters are sometimes added
as well as dropped by the peasantry.
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