Abstract The observed Standard Model (SM) quark/lepton mass hierarchies and the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) mixing pattern are described in an SU(8) theory through its realistic symmetry breaking pattern with three intermediate stages, which rely on a set of d = 5 gravity-induced operators that break the emergent global symmetries in the chiral fermion sector, as well as the precise identifications of all non-trivially embedded SM flavors.