Background: The “gender non-conforming voice” is a significant factor that causes difficulties for transgender individuals with gender dysphoria. Existing voice and communication therapy for transgender individuals tends to focus on the development of their vocal characteristics rather than their use of language. Currently, there is a lack of research on the language targets of communication therapy. Cantonese is predominantly spoken in Hong Kong. It is a tone language with the characteristic feature of sentence-final particle (SFP) system. Sentence-final particles (SFPs) convey the speaker’s moods, attitudes, feelings and emotions. The use of certain SFPs is associated with gender.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in the frequency of SFP use between transgender and cisgender Cantonese speakers.

Methods: A matched-pair design was used in the study and speech data were collected using two sentence completion tasks: a binary-gendered dialog and a gender-neutral dialog.

Results: Both the male-to-female (MtF) transgender group (n=10) and the female cisgender group (n=10) perceived female roles as SFPs more frequently compared to male roles in the binary-gender dialog, while the MtF group used significantly more SFPs than the cisgender group in the gender-neutral dialog.

Conclusion: The results suggest that MtF transgender participants used significantly more SFPs than their cisgender counterparts, possibly as a strategy to affirm their gender identity. Implications for communication therapy emphasize the need to promote more flexible use of SFPs, rather than simply encouraging increased use.