Can I pronounce 'little' as in 'written'?

Are you asking if the "itt" part of "little" and "written" are pronounced the same? With my accent, that is true. Sometimes "little" can sound like "lil" or "liddle", and sometimes "written" can sound like "wridden". For an English learner, it's probably better to try and use the more standard pronunciation instead of these. When you mention "hot n' heavy", are you referring to the T in "hot"?

No

Can you rephrase exactly what you’re asking? I’m really struggling to understand.

Little can be shortened to lil. Like “just want a lil bit”

Hot and heavy (three words) is quite different than little (one word) You can't use one to infer how to pronounce the other.

What? No. You can’t pronounce little as written.

Im not quite sure i understand but I'll try to answer. Hot and heavy does typically get truncated to something like hot'n heavy. Written is usually said like writing rather than fully pronouncing each T, like writ-ten or even stressing the E like writ-en. Little is similar. Its technically pronounced lit-tul, but i don't know anyone that says that. Everyone is knkw says something like lid'l. The Ts get much softer. But even if you stress the T, it would be more like lit'l.

Not in the US (since you mentioned Seinfeld). Yes in the UK.

I mean, maybe in the scenario you were trying to approximate the Scottish English pronunciation of the word yeah

yes you can.

I say: [ˈlɪɾɫ̩] “little” with a tapped “T” and [ˈɹɪʔn̩] “written” with a glottal stop “T.” To use the tapped “T” in “written” (i.e. [ˈɹɪɾn̩]) is not impossible (and, indeed, is used by some native speakers), but it can lead to confusion with “ridden,” for which it is one standard pronunciation in the US.

I believe you mean to ask if you can pronounce the Ts in the word "written" as if they're Ds like those the word "little". First off, yes, we often leave some of the sounds out of words when speaking quickly. It happens in every language: Hot and heavy --> "hot 'n heavy" Going to --> "gonna" I'd say that the pronunciation of Ts of little is more of an accent thing. In America, sometimes Ts turn into Ds in common speech. In most British English accents, the Ts are pronounced. Little --> "liddle" Butter --> "budder" Latter --> "ladder" I don't think this applies to the word "written" in my American accent. The Ts are still pronounced. Might happen with some accents, but it's probably rare.

What you're referring to are two different ways the underlying /t/ sound can actually be produced (called allophones). The /t/ in written is unreleased or produced as a glottal stop, following the rule before a syllabic nasal sound. In my dialect, the /t/ in little is produced as a tap, like in the words latter or butter. If you were to produce the /t/ like the one in written, I would think you sound like you're doing a bad British accent. Also, in the phrase "hot and heavy", you totally can get the same pattern as the word written! Those allophonic patterns don't care about word boundaries, so if "and" is produced as a syllabic n like in written, the same rule would apply

The "ttle" in little and the "tten" in written are both one syllable, if that helps. Your question isn't really clear, but based on my understanding of what you are asking, the answer is yes.

Yes, you can pronounce little as "lit-tel" just as you can pronounce written as "writ-ten", with a hard t sound, but it may come off as overly formal. It's more common to produce it as "liddle", at least in my social circles

In your audio, the main difference I'm hearing is a greater emphasis on the first syllable in the second pronunciation. Both sound fine to my Canadian ear. Edit: it sounds like the difference is in the double T. Your first version pronounces them more like a D, which is very common, & my drama teacher called a 'lazy t'. On stage, we had to pronounce our Ts as Ts in order to be understood in the back row. We would do an exercise from The Mikado, "I've got a little list". You weren't allowed to drop letters from the ends of words, you had to pronounce the last letter clearly before starting the next word. It ends up sounding 'clipped' until you really get the hang of it. My teacher would have berated your first pronunciation & applauded your second!

I, an American English speaker, would use a glottal stop in written (stoppage of air at the back of the mouth) and use a flap t (often compared to a d sound) for little. If I was trying to speak carefully, or if I was repeating myself for clarity, then I would switch to fully pronouncing the 't's in both words. My understanding is the British English would use a glottal stop for both? Wri'en and Li'le

I'm an NA speaker. As far as I can tell, I pronounce the sound in "little" as an alveolar flap and the sound in "written" with a glottal stop in everyday speech. If I am emphasizing the words or being formal, I pronounce both sounds as /t/

If you mean saying “little” like “writ’n”, then not really. You need to pronounce the L fully and at that point there isn’t really a difference whether you can sort of “speed it up” because the E is virtually silent at the end anyway. The short way to say it would be “lil”

I say "liddle" and "rih'*in"

The second way is the only way I know how to say it. I didn't even realize what you were saying the first time you said it. Had to listen a couple times to get it.

Based on your recording, which is a bit hard to understand/hear so took me a few times, I'd say I always pronounce the "t's" like in "written". I think most people I know do where I'm from, unless speaking really fast - if I were putting on a fake American accent I'd probably pronounce it more like your first go.

Based only on your recording, both pronunciations are "correct" but if you want to sound like an American native speaker you will use the first pronunciation. The second one, where the "t" sound has a lingual stop, sounds over-pronounced, but it's not wrong.

I don’t understand the question in the title.

In my accent “little” has a D instead of the two Ts, and “written” has a glottal stop instead of the two Ts. Then again, I’m from Toronto and “Toronto” can be pronounced properly with zero Ts.