I can't find anything in the dictionary.

My book gives the word in hiragana but the dictionary also shows katakana.

A quick google revealed that it is a loanword from Russian so katakana seems
more appropriate.

But is there a Kanji for this word?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-13T14:49:42.483
76554
2020-04-16T12:12:03.420
2020-04-13T15:14:37.380
1628
29665
question
words katakana loanwords food ateji
Is there a Kanji for the Japanese word イクラ as in salmon roe?
People on the internet ([1](https://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/292518.html),
[2](https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q102827560))
suggest that 鮭卵 may be used as
[_jukujikun_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji#jukujikun) for イクラ, but as
you already found out, イクラ itself derives from Russian икра (ikra) and is
usually written in _kana_.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-13T15:13:11.140
76556
2020-04-14T02:09:38.903
2020-04-14T02:09:38.903
1628
1628
76554
answer
> My book gives the word in hiragana but the dictionary also shows katakana.

Google has three times more results for いくら軍艦 than イクラ軍艦, and Bing has just
over twice as many for the hiragana version, so it seems hiragana is more
common.

> A quick google revealed that it is a loanword from Russian so katakana seems
> more appropriate.

As it happens らーめん is from Chinese 拉麺, but it is only written in hiragana or
katakana.

> But is there a Kanji for this word?

Japanese used to just copy the Chinese for kanji so 鲑魚子 would be the correct
one if you have to have kanji.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-16T10:13:33.413
76625
2020-04-16T12:12:03.420
2020-04-16T12:12:03.420
76554
answer