Hello Pali friends,
1. Is there supposed to be a difference in saying/hearing the sound
between "canda" and "chanda"? It's a general question regarding those
aspirated consonants represented in romanized pali with 2 letters but
treated in pali as one letter. As far as I can tell, the only way I can
intentionally say the two differently is in controlling the force/volume
of how much air I puff out. "Canda" I try to quietly and quickly make
the "h" sound, whereas "canda", I have to to really put some
chanda/effort in saying the "h", almost like an exclamation or a cough.
In all the Thai chanting, and B.Bodhi's recitations (not chanted) that
I've listened to so far, I can not tell the difference between "c" and
"ch". Both sound like "ch" to me.

2. how to pronounce "pīti"? I always hear " pītī " (pee-tee). mp3
Example: http://www.aimwell.org/Help/Pali/pali.html . According to
rules, I should be hearing a short "i" as in "pin" at the end of " Pīti ".

3. how to pronounce "dvi"? I hear "dee". example: this audio dictionary
from a pali expert http://aimwell.org/assets/Pali.zip

4. When a native pali speaker asks a question, is there an inflection,
intonation , or some other means to convey that is a question, similar
to how we intonate the final syllable/word of the question in english
when asking a question?

5. How are double consonants pronounced, such as "buddha", "bhikkhu"?
(expert pronouncing mp3 here http://www.aimwell.org/Help/Pali/pali.html
) I know it's supposed to be pronounced something like "bud-dha", but
what I hear is "bu-dha". Similarly with other double consonants. From
this I have to infer that a double consonant is like a speed bump thrown
in the middle of a word, causing a forced pause, but one can not
actually be expected to pronounce the consonant twice or else it would
sound like stuttering.

I am putting together a wiki on the ever growing list of exceptions to
the standard pronunciation rules, and hoping to assemble a more
complete audio dictionary on the web than what is currently available on
the web.

-Frank