There is even some precedent, for example original Alpha AXP instruction set only supports 32-bit and 64-bit memory reads/writes, while still having 8-bit char.

There is even some precedent, for example original Alpha AXP instruction set only supports 32-bit and 64-bit memory reads/writes, while still having 8-bit char. Although, I guess the bigger problem is to how to represent pointers to 8-bit values - on Alpha a pointer with value 1 would point to the octet at offset 1 in memory, where presumably on this 16-bit DSP such 1-pointer would point at the octet at offset 2.