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While explaining [かつおぶし via the English
Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsuobushi). There is a picture that
has かつをぶし on a のれん:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YKKIf.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YKKIf.jpg)

In the dialect that I speak, we do make vocal substitutions, but we generally
write with standard かな。If anyone has any insight to why を was written instead
of お, I'd appreciate it.
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history dialects classical-japanese kana-usage
かつおぶし but かつをぶし
What you're seeing isn't any kind of "dialect spelling" or "pronunciation
spelling", but rather the **historical spelling**. Historical spellings are
the kana spellings from before the spelling reforms of the late 1800s up
through the mid-1900s. These older spellings often reflect the etymologies
(word roots) of the terms.

For more about historical kana spellings, see these Wikipedia articles:

  * [https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/歴史的仮名遣](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2%E7%9A%84%E4%BB%AE%E5%90%8D%E9%81%A3)
  * <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_kana_orthography>

In this case, the modern term かつお is from the older term かつを. If we look at
the monolingual Japanese dictionary aggregator site Kotobank and [their entry
for 鰹【かつお】](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%B0%B9-464093), right at the top of
the page we see the big kanji followed by the modern 読【よ】み or "reading", and
the next line has a few items in grey boxes -- this includes `かつお〔かつを〕`,
showing the modern kana spelling followed in the 〔brackets〕 by the historical
kana spelling.

Although raw tuna is now a popular sushi ingredient, in older times, this fish
was almost exclusively eaten only after it had been smoked and dried into hard
bricks -- the better for easy transportation and long-term preservation.
Etymologically (in terms of word roots), researchers thus think this word is
probably from 硬【かた】, the stem of adjective 硬【かた】い ("hard, not soft"), + 魚【うお】
("fish"), older kana spelling (and older pronunciation) うを. _kata_ + _uwo_ →
_katauwo_ → _katuwo_ → modern _katsuo_.

For more about the etymology (derivation) of this word, see the entries at
these monolingual Japanese dictionary sites:

  * Nihon Jiten: <http://www.nihonjiten.com/data/45561.html>
  * Gogen Allguide: <http://gogen-allguide.com/ka/katsuo.html>
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answer