Tosa dialect (土佐弁 Tosa-ben) is spoken in the central and eastern regions of modern-day Kōchi Prefecture in Japan. This area was once known as the Tosa area and the name of the dialect still reflects this older name. The dialect itself developed from the linguistic influence of immigrants to the Tosa area from other parts of Japan and is largely a combination of the Kansai dialect and Chugoku dialects. In particular the accent system used is that of old Kansai-ben. Many features of Tosa dialect are shared with neighbouring Hata dialect, spoken in the western part of Kōchi Prefecture.