diff --git a/gcc/ChangeLog b/gcc/ChangeLog
index d19b93ea7b6c367bf8f33088cfc4afa9195aa13c..9790268131900e82bd173f3c9b279c3f09c9387d 100644
--- a/gcc/ChangeLog
+++ b/gcc/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+Fri Apr 17 14:30:37 1998  John Carr <jfc@mit.edu>
+
+	* emit-rtl.c (operand_subword_force): If a register can not be
+	accessed by words, copy it to a pseudo register.
+
 Fri Apr 17 14:30:37 1998  Jim Wilson  <wilson@cygnus.com>
 
 	* rs6000/vxppc.h (CPP_SPEC): Add support for mrelocatable*.
diff --git a/gcc/emit-rtl.c b/gcc/emit-rtl.c
index 4d9361ce9bc5bebe8911b73e9703bf03cd6ac149..40b0aa54e5199aab5d7509dbcf2fddc3b47e147a 100644
--- a/gcc/emit-rtl.c
+++ b/gcc/emit-rtl.c
@@ -1380,7 +1380,14 @@ operand_subword_force (op, i, mode)
     return result;
 
   if (mode != BLKmode && mode != VOIDmode)
-    op = force_reg (mode, op);
+    {
+      /* If this is a register which can not be accessed by words, copy it
+	 to a pseudo register.  */
+      if (GET_CODE (op) == REG)
+	op = copy_to_reg (op);
+      else
+	op = force_reg (mode, op);
+    }
 
   result = operand_subword (op, i, 1, mode);
   if (result == 0)