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As part of a long text on the use of `られる`, there is this sentence:

> **られる** は私{わたし}の父{ちち}が信{しん}じていたほどには効能{こうのう}を持{も}っていなかったのではなかろうか。

_This sentence is from my JLPT textbook, but it seems a section of the full
text can be found
online[here](http://kaoyan.koolearn.com/20130816/784652.html).)_

I'm having trouble parsing this sentence. My inadequate attempt to translate
it has only resulted in fragments that don't come together into one logical
whole. "As for `られる` / to the degree my father put trust in / didn't have
benefit / probably wasn't the case."

Can someone help me link everything together so that this sentence makes
sense?
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2014-06-27T04:25:59.543
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2015-10-06T22:18:54.830
2014-06-27T04:28:55.837
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question
grammar
I'm a bit lost on this sentence using なかろうか
かろう is a way of making だろう style volitional out of i-adjectives, so instead of
～のではないだろう it becomes ～のではなかろう. It has a little bit of an older feel to it, but
there are some constructions where you need to use this. For example, you
might say どんなに暑かろうとも～. Sometimes people in fiction might say よかろう in place of
いいだろう. Keep in mind that it is not a very colloquial construction (maybe in
some dialects it might be), but it means だろう.

So のではなかろうか = のではないだろうか
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2014-06-27T04:32:01.173
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answer
I did not look at the link very closely but I surmise this is part of a
discussion on whether ら抜き言葉 make the language more ambiguous and whether this
could really matter in certain situations. I would read the extract as

> 「られる」は私の父が信じていたほどには効能を持っていなかったのではなかろうか。  
>  Perhaps the "rareru" construction was not as efficacious as my father
> thought.

As per the other answer, のではなかろうか basically has the same meaning as のではないだろうか.
When translating such sentence endings I think the trick is:

(1) recognise what is just a variation in grammatical style,  
(2) confirm whether the writer is asserting or denying the topic using the
context and  
(3) when it comes to choosing the best English, there is no right answer so go
with what fits the passage best but make reference to where the sentence
ending lies on the "I think/Probably" spectrum of other possible sentence
endings:

〜だろう  
〜と思う  
〜のではないか  
〜のではないだろうか

I find expressions containing words like 効能 unsatisfying to translate.
"Effective" was my first choice but its appropriateness might depend on
exactly what the father said. I chose "efficacious" because the following
definition includes all the qualities that I imagine the father believed in:

> Efficacious: (typically of something inanimate or abstract) successful in
> producing a desired or intended result; effective (New Oxford American
> Dictionary)
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2014-06-28T04:02:32.967
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2014-06-28T23:00:02.373
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answer
As background to ssb's answer, the -かろう, -かれ, and related forms of い
adjectives are a contraction of the regular old く adverbial ending + various
conjugated forms of verb ある "is / are". So なかろう is a contraction of なく + あろう,
expressed in modern colloquial Japanese as ないだろう. You might run into よかろう
(from よく + あろう, equivalent to よいだろう) in manga or anime.

The -かれ forms still show up in certain set phrases, like 遅{おそ}かれ早{はや}かれ "[be
it] sooner or later", and arose as a contraction of く + あれ, the imperative
form of ある "be", used here like the English subjunctive conjugation, such as
in " **be** it good weather or bad, I'm still going out."

For that matter, the past tense of い adjectives is also a contraction: -かった
derives from く + あった.
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2014-06-29T07:35:21.340
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answer