Keyboard problem: alt and command swapped

I am currently experiencing a problem with my Apple Pro Keyboard (Model circa 2000 taken from a PowerMac G4). It used to work fine, except now ALT and COMMAND seem to be swapped.
COMMAND + Q instead of quitting, gives me this: œ
Here is the whole qwerty: œ∑´®†¥¨^øπåß∂ƒ©˙∆˚¬Ω≈ç√∫~µ
Useful if you want to type strange, but slowly frustrating, as frequent mac users will know keyboard shortcuts are deeply ingrained into reflexes and are hard to change.
Has anyone else experience a problem like this?
How can it be solved?
I have already tried several things: reconnecting keyboard, restarting, checking updates. No significant harware or software change either, it just started randomly.
I have also tried searching google with no luck, results are for different topics with the same search terms.
SEO helper text:
Problem with keyboard alt and command swapped.
Strange keyboard bug alt command mapped incorrectly.
Pro Keyboard alt command not working.
Thanks in advance.

*hangs head in shame*
You'd never guess where I didn't look*: system preferences.
Indeed the 'modier keys' were incorrectly mapped. So its now fixed.
...but I wonder what caused it to randomly switch?
[* That'd be because I'm developing 16 hours a day for my dissertation, it does crazy things to your head.]

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