I'm not a native speaker. I've noticed that some Americans pronounce {h} as a guttural sound sometimes. Is this a documented feature of American English?
Examples:
This is a minor phonetic tendency in US dialects that I have not see studied, but have observed a few times. There is an allophonic rule where /h/ becomes a pharyngeal before back low and mid vowels. I know one speaker from NYC who does this – it tends to happen when the word is stressed. That covers the two Youtube examples as well (the speakers otherwise have regular [h]). I believe Woody Allen has this feature in his speech, at least in movies.
You hear it also from British (Received pronunciation) speakers in emphatic or deliberate speech. It sounds very much like the Arabic pharyngeal ح .
