diff --git a/src/common/intl.cpp b/src/common/intl.cpp
index 8d462de22c..d47dbea5b1 100644
--- a/src/common/intl.cpp
+++ b/src/common/intl.cpp
@@ -1600,6 +1600,18 @@ bool wxLocale::Init(int language, int flags)
 
     wxMB2WXbuf retloc = wxSetlocaleTryUTF(LC_ALL, locale);
 
+#ifdef __AIX__
+    // at least in AIX 5.2 libc is buggy and the string returned from setlocale(LC_ALL)
+    // can't be passed back to it because it returns 6 strings (one for each locale
+    // category), i.e. for C locale we get back "C C C C C C"
+    //
+    // this contradicts IBM own docs but this is not of much help, so just work around
+    // it in the crudest possible manner
+    wxChar *p = wxStrchr((wxChar *)retloc, _T(' '));
+    if ( p )
+        *p = _T('\0');
+#endif // __AIX__
+
     if ( !retloc )
     {
         // Some C libraries don't like xx_YY form and require xx only