Just started reading 君の名は manga and encountered this sentence:
人間の輪郭がぼやけて人ならざるものに出会うかもしれない時刻
I have never encountered the ~ならざるもの structure before and cant seem to find an answer.
1 Answer
It's the Classical Japanese corresponding to 人ではないもの ("something inhuman"), so your sentence translates to:
人間の輪郭がぼやけて人ならざるものに出会うかもしれない時刻
That moment in time when silhouettes blur together, that time when you may encounter something which is not human.
Expressions like these come up sometimes in prose, particularly when the writer wants to conjure up an atmosphere of mystery or intrigue.
Grammatically, ならざる is the negative form of the 連体形 of the copula なる, so simply corresponds to ではない in modern Japanese.
