Kaninë

Kaninë is a settlement in the Vlorë County, southwestern Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became part of the municipality Vlorë. It is home to the Kaninë Castle.

==Name== According to one theory, a fort which Procopius identifies as Kionin in Epirus Vetus may be a reference to Kanina. The other view holds that the name of the fortified settlement of Kanina was attested for the first time at the beginning of the 11th century AD in Byzantine Greek as (in plural form). Bardhyl Demiraj argues that the toponym is significant for the history of the Albanian language since Kanina represents a toponym that shows no sign of the dialect phenomenon of rhotacism, which is explained by him with the fact that the settlement was recorded with the name Kanina in a period during which rhotacism in Albanian was no longer active for some time. On the other hand, the name of nearby Vlorë, attested earlier, was subject to the Albanian rhotacism.