diff --git a/src/hb-private.hh b/src/hb-private.hh
index 0cb049e8d..ea8caf5e6 100644
--- a/src/hb-private.hh
+++ b/src/hb-private.hh
@@ -464,7 +464,17 @@ struct hb_lockable_set_t
 static inline uint16_t hb_be_uint16 (const uint16_t v)
 {
   const uint8_t *V = (const uint8_t *) &v;
-  return (uint16_t) (V[0] << 8) + V[1];
+  return (V[0] << 8) | V[1];
+}
+
+static inline uint16_t hb_uint16_swap (const uint16_t v)
+{
+  return (v >> 8) | (v << 8);
+}
+
+static inline uint32_t hb_uint32_swap (const uint32_t v)
+{
+  return (hb_uint16_swap (v) << 16) | hb_uint16_swap (v >> 16);
 }
 
 /* Note, of the following macros, uint16_get is the one called many many times.
diff --git a/src/hb-uniscribe.cc b/src/hb-uniscribe.cc
index 2edc17835..5013e9f6f 100644
--- a/src/hb-uniscribe.cc
+++ b/src/hb-uniscribe.cc
@@ -331,7 +331,7 @@ retry:
     /* TODO setup ranges */
   }
 
-  OPENTYPE_TAG language_tag = hb_ot_tag_from_language (buffer->props.language);
+  OPENTYPE_TAG language_tag = hb_uint32_swap (hb_ot_tag_from_language (buffer->props.language));
   hb_tag_t buffer_script_tags[2];
   hb_ot_tags_from_script (buffer->props.script,
 			  &buffer_script_tags[0],
@@ -347,10 +347,10 @@ retry:
       OPENTYPE_TAG script_tag;
       /* We ignore what script tag Uniscribe chose, except to differentiate
        * between old/new tags.  Not sure if this picks DFLT up correctly... */
-      if (script_tags[i] == buffer_script_tags[1])
-        script_tag = buffer_script_tags[1];
+      if (script_tags[i] == hb_uint32_swap (buffer_script_tags[1]))
+        script_tag = hb_uint32_swap (buffer_script_tags[1]);
       else
-        script_tag = buffer_script_tags[0];
+        script_tag = hb_uint32_swap (buffer_script_tags[0]);
 
       hr = ScriptShapeOpenType (font_data->hdc,
 				&font_data->script_cache,