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It appears the [未然形]{mizenkei} of **verbs** comes up a lot in modern Japanese
conjugations:

  * Negation is formed as 未然形 + `ない`.
  * The presumptive is a contraction of 未然形 + `(よ)う`.
  * The causative/passive forms, 未然形 + `(さ)せる` and `(ら)れる`.

In textbooks, i-adjectives also have a 未然形, such as 高い → 高かろ. But it appears
to be very rare:

  * Negation uses 連用形 + `ない` instead.
  * The 高かろう presumptive is [sorta 口語, but old-fashioned and not used in daily life](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/44988/16052).  
(Indeed, I only ever hear 高いだろう.)

Is this 高かろ form used for anything else, or is it somewhat an artifact of the
past?

> Bonus musings: would it be fair to say that 「高か **ろ** is the 未然形 of 高い」 is
> an over-analysis based on 高かろう alone? Because I believe 高かろう is formed as a
> contracted 高か **ら** + _arou_ , and I believe there is a sense in which you
> can consider 高か **ら** the true 未然形 of 高い. Maybe there are no hard answers
> here, and [未然形 of i-adjectives is a nebulous concept
> anyway](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/16232/16052).
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question
conjugations i-adjectives
Does the 未然形 of i-adjectives show up in today's Japanese?
It's important to recognize a few things about the purported 未然形 of ～い
adjectives.

  * All of the ～か～ forms are derived by contraction of ～く as the basic adverbial form + あ～ from あり (modern ある). This is sometimes called the カリ活用 ( _kari_ conjugation) pattern.  
よく + あった → よかった

  * As such, any 未然形 of an ～い adjective is actually the 未然形 of あり, which is あら.

Looking more specifically at the ～かろ form in your question:

  * This isn't actually the 未然形 of anything. This is a later development, and is specific to the volitional.  
The か derives from the same ～く + あ～ as above.  
The ろう in the volitional ending is a contraction of らむ: む shifted to う, then
the //a// in ら and the //u// combined into //ɔː// (like English _awww_ ) by
the early 1600s, as evidenced in the 1603 Nippo Jisho. Then that //ɔː// sound
merged with //oː// to produce modern ろう.  
So the ろ in ～かろ is a weird kind of not-quite-stem.

If you can read enough Japanese to get around the page, [the 古典日本語の形容詞の活用
(conjugation of adjectives in Classical Japanese) section of the 形容詞 page on
the Japanese
Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%A2%E5%AE%B9%E8%A9%9E#%E5%8F%A4%E5%85%B8%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%AE%E5%BD%A2%E5%AE%B9%E8%A9%9E%E3%81%AE%E6%B4%BB%E7%94%A8)
provides a conjugation stem chart. As you can see there, the 未然形 of the _kari_
conjugation is から, not かろ.

The chart also shows the endings for the regular conjugation pattern, also
called the ク活用 ( _ku_ conjugation) pattern. Educational grammars describe the
～く ending as the 未然形, since this is the conjugation stem used to generate the
negative. However, I'd argue that there _isn't_ a 未然形 for the _ku_ conjugation
pattern -- the ～く ending is simply an adverbial, and this can be used to
modify pretty much any other verb or adjective -- including the negation
adjective ない. I think this analysis is bolstered by the fact that the ～く
ending cannot take various other auxiliaries that otherwise attach to the 未然形,
such as ず or む. In fact, I've read in a couple places that the カリ活用 arose
precisely because these auxiliaries couldn't attach directly to the adjective,
requiring a verb with a proper 未然形 in the form of あり → あら.

### Answers to core questions

> Does the 未然形 of i-adjectives show up in today's Japanese?

Assuming you mean specifically the ～かろ ending, only rarely, as described [in
naruto's other post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/44985/is-
the-volitional-form-of-i-adjectives-often-used/44988#44988).

If you mean the ～から ending, then no, I can't say as I've ever encountered it
outside of classical Japanese.

> Bonus musings: would it be fair to say that 「高か **ろ** is the 未然形 of 高い」 is
> an over-analysis based on 高かろう alone?

Yes, as above -- you're correct when you state: _...there is a sense in which
you can consider 高か **ら** the true 未然形 of 高い_.
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answer