A quick question about pronunciation.

I have a little pet project in mind and it requires some knowledge:

How (in english) would you guys pronounce the word "Mota"? Would you use a hard T like in Teen or a soft T like in Peter?

The question is flawed, I know. Americans will say PeDer and Brits will say PeTer but I'm still curious.

My french background tells me that Mota with a hard T sounds better.

Same for me : my french background tells me that the hard T is better but let the others answer to it ! But that is a very interesting question !

In my mind I would tend to think it would be a hard, voiceless "t", but when I really think about it I think you could probably pronounce it either way in American English. We are lazy about that intervocalic "t". I'm trying to think of proper names and foreign countries, and we do pronounce, say, Qatar with a hard "t", and even Haiti, oftentimes, but the second syllable in Qatar tends to get at least some emphasis and the final vowel in Haiti is probably a little more unusual than the more indeterminate sound in Mota. I'm thinking it depends on how you handle the surrounding syllables, and Mota would almost certainly have an unaccented final syllable. So, yeah, I imagine it could go either way.

I pronounce it as "moh-tuh." Here are some words that sound similar, but with something different in place of the opening M. These pages have audio for each word, which will probably be a better example than my attempt to explain the pronunciation I use.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nota
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lota
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/quota

Thank you for the opinions and examples. I think I will let my exaggerated hard T come through ans see what it sounds like. It will underline my foreigner accent and give the project a certain dubious charm.

Expect to hear more from this soon!