What is the meaning of か in phrases such as ～ばかりか and ～のみか?


I'm studying N2 grammar and I was surprised by the meaning of ばかりか and のみか
when I first came across them. E.g:

> あの人は、学校の成績がいいばかりかスポーツもできる。

I can see these か forms are the same as ばかりでなく and のみならず (and だけでなく) so the か
is clearly a negative marker in this context. When I first read the example
sentences, I didn't immediately 'get' that the ばかりか bit was negative until I
read the explanation.

What I'm wondering is are there other times when か is used as a negative in
this way? Is this like a special negative form, or are these examples
basically exceptions? Or is this more like the か in かどうか or something like
that?




This か is a question marker, and it's used to form a rhetorical question in
this construction. If I understand correctly, something like "is it (really)
only...?" eventually changed to a strong "not only!" and became an integral
part of these fixed constructions. I feel のみか/ばかりか is slightly more emphatic
or dramatic than のみならず/ばかりでなく/etc.

A similar fixed phrase is あろうことか, which can be usually translated as
"Unbelievably" or "To my surprise":

> あろうことか、彼は試験に落ちた。

あろう is the volitional/inferential form of ある, so あろうことか originally means "(is
this) something that is possible?" or "not sure if this can happen", but it's
now a strong expression meaning "this sure is impossible/unbelievable
(but...)".




This か is a question marker, and it's used to form a rhetorical question in
this construction. If I understand correctly, something like "is it (really)
only...?" eventually changed to a strong "not only!" and became an integral
part of these fixed constructions. I feel のみか/ばかりか is slightly more emphatic
or dramatic than のみならず/ばかりでなく/etc.

A similar fixed phrase is あろうことか, which can be usually translated as
"Unbelievably" or "To my surprise":

> あろうことか、彼は試験に落ちた。

あろう is the volitional/inferential form of ある, so あろうことか originally means "(is
this) something that is possible?" or "not sure if this can happen", but it's
now a strong expression meaning "this sure is impossible/unbelievable
(but...)".

