diff --git a/Ghidra/Framework/SoftwareModeling/src/main/java/ghidra/app/plugin/processors/sleigh/SleighLanguage.java b/Ghidra/Framework/SoftwareModeling/src/main/java/ghidra/app/plugin/processors/sleigh/SleighLanguage.java
index c900152a38..f45f183e38 100644
--- a/Ghidra/Framework/SoftwareModeling/src/main/java/ghidra/app/plugin/processors/sleigh/SleighLanguage.java
+++ b/Ghidra/Framework/SoftwareModeling/src/main/java/ghidra/app/plugin/processors/sleigh/SleighLanguage.java
@@ -888,11 +888,13 @@ public class SleighLanguage implements Language {
 			throw new SleighException(".sla file for " + getLanguageID() + " has the wrong format");
 		}
 		boolean isBigEndian = SpecXmlUtils.decodeBoolean(el.getAttribute("bigendian"));
-		// check the instruction endianess, not the program data endianess
 		if (isBigEndian ^ description.getEndian().isBigEndian()) {
-			throw new SleighException(
-				".ldefs says " + getLanguageID() + " is " + description.getEndian() +
-					" but .sla says " + el.getAttribute("bigendian"));
+			if (description.getInstructionEndian().isBigEndian() == description.getEndian()
+					.isBigEndian()) {
+				throw new SleighException(
+					".ldefs says " + getLanguageID() + " is " + description.getEndian() +
+						" but .sla says " + el.getAttribute("bigendian"));
+			}
 		}
 		uniqueBase = SpecXmlUtils.decodeLong(el.getAttribute("uniqbase"));
 		alignment = SpecXmlUtils.decodeInt(el.getAttribute("align"));