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> もう20年にもなろうか。伊勢崎の人で覚えている人があろう。

Is the author doing hypothesis by using the form that I have marked? This is
the opening sentence of a ghost story which is set in Isezaki.
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2017-06-16T16:38:47.853
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2017-06-16T17:12:11.513
2017-06-16T16:51:44.377
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question
translation volitional-form pragmatics
Volitional form
The "volitional" う/よう has several meanings. Here, these なろう and あろう express a
**guess** of the speaker (i.e., "it seems ～", "I think ～", "look like ～").
Basically they mean the same thing as もう20年にもなるだろうか and 覚えている人があるだろう,
respectively. This usage is uncommon in spoken Japanese, but not rare in
literary and stiff sentences. You may have seen [`adjective +
かろう`](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/3300/5010) before, which is
essentially the same pattern.

As for the second sentence, ある is an old-fashioned and stiff way of saying いる.
In archaic Japanese ある was safely used for people (e.g., 人あり in archaic
Japanese = 人がいる in modern Japanese). Normally this sentence should be written
as 覚えている人がいるだろう or 覚えている人がいよう.

References:

  * [What Does the "Volitional" Really Mean?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/36505/5010)
  * [Advanced Volitional](http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/volitional2) (see the last section)
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answer