with a bunch of people calling him "mittens romney", i keep noticing how no one ever pronounces the double-t in the word "mittens". try it yourself, the ts disappear and are replaced by a glottal stop.
back when i was beginning to study arabic and trying to figure out how the letter hamza was pronounced, someone told me "it's like the double-t in a cockney accent." and so i would imagine some brit saying "bo'ul" (boʔl) instead of "bottle." but in my own dialect, most double-ts are pronounced. bottle is "bottle", little is "little" not "li'ul" (loʔl), etc.
but when i say mittens" it comes out "mi'ens". i have to make a conscious effort to pronounce the t. and when i do, it sounds unnatural, like i am trying to emphasize the "t" rather than speaking like i normally would. why is that word different from other words with a double-t?
