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This is another question that's come from a 昔話。

We have the following section:

> 大きい箱と小さい箱がありますが、どちらがいいですか。  
>  どちらも結構じゃが、どうしてもと言うのなら、小さいほうでよかろう。

I'm having trouble with the second sentence. My translation is:

  * `どちらも結構じゃが` \- Either one is fine. - Here, I think じゃ is a contraction of では and has the same effect as using です.
  * `どうしてもと言うのなら` \- If you say I must - の seems like the explanation modality to me.
  * `小さいほうでよかろう` \- The little one would be better. - I'm guessing that ほうで is a less emphatic version of ほうが. Just going on context for よかろう meaning good.

What I'm really interested in is where よかろう came from. At first glance, it
seemed like some crazy old volitional form (行こう!）, but It seems kind of
ridiculous for there to be a volitional form of an adjective. It really seems
like it could be the adjectival form of だろう. (I read something that sounded
similar to this that was the adjectival form of だろう, but cannot find the link
again.)

  * What does よかろう mean? 
  * Is it equivalent to いいだろう? 
  * Is this just one of those old fashioned feeling Japanese grammatical forms? 
  * Is there a case where I could actually put this to use (other than reading 昔話)?
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2011-09-27T04:38:19.023
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question
translation etymology conjugations volitional-form modality
よかろう - What does it mean? Where does it come from?
> What I'm really interested in is where よかろう came from. At first glance, it
> seemed like some crazy old volitional form (行こう!）, but It seems kind of
> ridiculous for there to be a volitional form of an adjective.

Why ridiculous? い-adectives in Japanese have conjugations. よかろう is 良かろう、
derived from いい or よい. It's rather the "monologue" meaning of よかろう, more than
the volitional. As if you said "well, I guess the small one would be better
then."

I use よかろう almost everyday (or other adjectives, like 寒かろう), and hear it quite
often too.

いいだろう isn't quite good. It's not unheard, but I don't think it's grammatically
correct.
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2011-09-27T05:07:57.900
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answer
`よかろう` is not so different from `いいだろう`. The crucial part is the same. And
your concern about having a volitional form for an adjective is right, but is
only half way. If you worry about the volitional form, then why do you not
worry about the plain ending form, past form, etc. of adjectives? If you
decompose the adjectives, you can observe that all these endings are actually
verb endings. They merely look like adjective endings because they are
contracted.

> よかろう < yoku ar-ou  
>  (possibility form `ou` attached to the verb `ar`)  
>  'it is probably good'
>
> い/よいだろう < i/yoi de ar-ou  
>  (possibility form `ou` attached to the verb `ar`)  
>  'it is probably good'
>
> い/よいでしょう < i/yoi des-you  
>  (possibility form `(y)ou` attached to the verb `des`)  
>  'it is probably good' (polite)

`よかろう` is slightly old fashioned, but is still in use when you either want to
be formal or authoritative.

* * *

`じゃ` in `じゃが` is not `では` but is the same as `だ`, which historically comes
from `である`.
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2011-09-27T05:34:14.280
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2011-09-27T05:34:14.280
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answer
Since other answers have already covered its meaning.

Formation:

>   * Adjective: よい/いい
>
>   * よい in 連用形: よく
>
>   * Verb: ある
>
>   * Verb in Plain Volitional: あろう
>
>

>
> Let's combine them:
>
>   * `よく` ＋ `あろう` \+ Sound Contraction（ `く` \+ `あ` to `か` ) = `よかろう`
>
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2011-09-27T07:00:04.420
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