  When a subgroup of the flavor symmetry group of a gauge theory is weakly
coupled to additional gauge fields, the vacuum tends to align such that the
gauged subgroup is unbroken. At the same time, the lattice discretization
typically breaks the flavor symmetry explicitly, and can give rise to new
lattice-artifact phases with spontaneously broken symmetries. We discuss the
interplay of these two phenomena, using chiral lagrangian techniques. Our first
example is two-flavor Wilson QCD coupled to electromagnetism. We also consider
examples of theories with staggered fermions, and demonstrate that recent
claims in the literature based on the use of staggered fermions are incorrect.
