Tldr yes. Not a Hindustani speaker but general linguistics nerd. No idea if HN can handle the IPA modifiers
- त - /t̪ə/ - voiceless dental plosive
- थ - /t̪ʰə/ - aspirated voiceless dental plosive
- ट - /ʈə/ - Voiceless retroflex plosive
- ठ - /ʈʰə/ - aspirated Voiceless retroflex plosive
t̪ - t with square bracket below is the dental plosive
ʰ - superscript h is the aspirations indicator
So there are three issues for English speakers:
A minor issue: English uses apical plosive /t/ for "t" , while Hindi and related use dental plosive /t̪/. This is a small difference in tongue placement. But these sound similar enough. The bigger issue is English lacks a retroflex plosive (tongue curls), and aspiration is non-phonemic (does not carry a meaningful distinction). English speakers typically aspirate leading plosives and don't aspirate in the middle of words. It's not that native English speakers "can't" hear a difference, it's just way more subtle and likely to be missed unless specifically listening for it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_dental_and_alveola...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_retroflex_plosive
- त - /t̪ə/ - voiceless dental plosive
- थ - /t̪ʰə/ - aspirated voiceless dental plosive
- ट - /ʈə/ - Voiceless retroflex plosive
- ठ - /ʈʰə/ - aspirated Voiceless retroflex plosive
t̪ - t with square bracket below is the dental plosive
ʰ - superscript h is the aspirations indicator
So there are three issues for English speakers:
A minor issue: English uses apical plosive /t/ for "t" , while Hindi and related use dental plosive /t̪/. This is a small difference in tongue placement. But these sound similar enough. The bigger issue is English lacks a retroflex plosive (tongue curls), and aspiration is non-phonemic (does not carry a meaningful distinction). English speakers typically aspirate leading plosives and don't aspirate in the middle of words. It's not that native English speakers "can't" hear a difference, it's just way more subtle and likely to be missed unless specifically listening for it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_dental_and_alveola...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_retroflex_plosive