07 January: today's birthdays

  • Bipasha Basu - Indian actress
  • Aloe Blacc - Stage name of Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III, American singer, songwriter, and rapper. I need a dollar is his most famous song. 
  • Nicolas Cage - Stage name of American actor Nicolas Kim Coppola. He won an Oscar for Best Actor in 1996
  • Nick Clegg - English politician
  • Sophie Cluzel - French politician
  • Shobhaa Dé - Indian writer and journalist. She wrote Second Thoughts, Starry Nights, and Socialite Evenings
  • Avedis Donabedian - Doctor and university professor of Armenian descent born in Lebanon
  • Lewis Hamilton - English racing driver
  • Irrfan Khan - Irrfan Khan was an Indian actor and was considered one of the greatest contemporary Indian actors. Khan's birth name was Sahabzade Irrfan Ali Khan, but he is often simply credited as Irrfan. Irrfan Khan was a very prolific actor who starred in numerous Hindi films but also had great success in British cinema and in Hollywood movies.
    Khan died at the young age of 53 after a two-year battle with neuroendocrine cancer.
    In Anglo-American cinema, he is best known for his roles in Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Ang Lee's Life of Pi (2012), The Lunchbox (2013).
    The correct pronunciation of Irrfan Khan is er-FAHN kahn.
    The "i" in the first syllable of Irrfan is pronounced midway between an "e" and and "i" sound. The following "r" is pronounced like a slightly trilled "r". In Irrfan, the stress is then pronounced on the second syllable, -FAHN. The "a" in Irrfan is pronounced as an open "ah" sound.
    His last name, Khan, is pronounced as it is read, with the "a" that is pronounced as a short "a" or "ah" sound.
  • Christian Louboutin - Christian Louboutin is a French footwear designer who is the founder of the brand of the same name. His stiletto shoes are easily recognizable by their red-lacquered soles. 
    The correct way to pronounce Louboutin in French often eludes English speakers even if the pronunciation isn't all that difficult. You'll often hear pronunciations along the lines of La-boo-ten or Low-boo-tahn, which are both wrong.
    The correct pronunciation of Christian Louboutin in French can be phonetically written as Creest-yawn Loo-boo-tohn. The name Christian presents two difficulties of pronunciation. The first one is the gargled "R" that is hard to reproduce for non-native speakers. The second, and possibly more important one is the final "N", which is a nasal "N" that sounds much shorter than an "N" in the English language. The last name, Louboutin, is simple to pronounce in its first two syllables "Loo-boo", but is more complicated in the final part. The -tin part of Louboutin, transcribed as -tohn, sounds like an open "O" like the unit of measurement "ohm", with a short nasal "N" at the end.
    READ MORE
    Fashion quotes by the most famous fashion designers worldwide and the pronunciation of their names
  • Charles Péguy - French writer, poet and essayist. He wrote L'Argent
  • Francis Poulenc - French composer and pianist
  • Jeremy Renner - American actor and film producer
  • Rhianna - English singer, born Rhianna Hannah Louise Kenny
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