We think especially hard stops 't' and 'tt' ("double t"?)
are quite common in Sanskrit.
It seems to us most native speakers of English (and many other
languages lacking that suprasegmental[?] phonemic distinction
between consonants?) have a hard time to hear the difference
in "length" of t-sounds in words like 'citi' and 'citta'.
In English that difference usually seems indicate difference
of pronunciation of the preceding *vowel*, e.g:
bitter Mr. Biter.
The secret of practicing the correct pronounciation of
the word 'citta'(etc.) might well be first to pronounce 'cit-', then snap your
fingers, and after that to pronounce '-ta'. Naturally, that
in most cases greatly exaggerates the very short pause between
'cit' and 'ta', but one should perhaps gradually shorter the pause
and compare ones pronunciation for instance to this:
http://yogasutrastudy.info/ysp-multi-track.html
(e.g. suutra I 2: yogash citta-vRtti-nirodhaH)
