Abstract :
This paper examines the semantics of AIDS in Ibibio, one of Africa s languages spoken in the Southern part of Nigeria. It asserts that Udofio itiaita , literally Eight diseases, which the Ibibio-speaking people adopted as AIDS equivalent in the language, is a mistranslation and semantically inaccurate. The findings show a phonological mix-up over AIDS and the number eight due to theaccidental resemblance between them. The paper posits that when Ibibio nativespeakers first heard about AIDS, they assumed it had to do with the number eight. This was the beginning of the problem, as AIDS and eight sound alike phonologically. An attempt is made to compare the Ibibio equivalent of AIDS with those of French, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. The result is that of Ibibio falling short semantically and failing the back-translation test. The paper avers that it is worrisome that Udofio itiaita is still retained as AIDS equivalent in Ibibio decades after it was wrongly adopted, making it to look as if the word was untranslatable in that language. The paper argues that AIDS is translatable in Ibibio. It proposes Idiok udofio anana nsuuk, i.e., a pandemic that defies a cure and Udofio ed, i.e., AIDS disease, as alternatives. It concludes that Udofio itiaita is misleading because it was based on a wrong assumption and has failed to portray AIDS as a killer disease to the target audience.
