I began reading Nikolaus Theseus’ (of Cyprus) introduction to Theodorus Gaza’s Iliad paraphrase. [I can’t tell whether this is the important Greek resistance figure or not, but he seems a few years too early.]
The most striking thing to me was that his Greek is full of this ἀπὸ + accusative construction. The LSJ mentions that it is sometimes the case in later Greek, and includes it under section “B. 2” that starts out with “in Arc., Cypr.” in B. 1 which is about the dative.
Is this just a late Greek thing, or a Cyprus thing?
So Arcado-Cypriot used apo (well, apu) with the dative, not the accusative. At least from the inscriptions I read.
use of apo + accusative is definitely a late Greek feature. Basically, by the time we get Byzantine vernacular texts, the accusative governs most of the prepositions. The dative starts weakening fairly early outside of literary Greek, there seems to be a syncretism between that and the genitive in line with the other Balkan languages in the middle ages.
It was very hard to read for a bit – it felt so wrong! – but I finally adjusted myself to have an strewing out feel of απο rather than a vacuuming up, and it seems to be a bit easier now. Though I’m sure I’m not understanding it precisely yet.