JSAI 53 (2022) 345 PHONETIC, ANALYTIC AND SUBSTITUTE WRITING: PATTERNS AND PITFALLS IN S.D. GOITEINｷS YEMENI ARCHIVE  Ori Shachmon and Tom Fogel The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Abstract The archive of the late S.D. Goitein, stored at the Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem, contains hundreds of hand-written transcribed texts in Yemeni-Arabic dialects, that were recorded in the early 1950s from Jewish immigrants from Yemen to Israel. In this essay we follow the evolution of the texts in this archive, pertaining to the trail from the oral narration to the written version. We propose to analyze each of these texts as a spiral narrative event, during which the story is told, re-told and recorded several times and in diverse manners, until it assumes its final, polished form. This multi-stage process is demonstrated via a sample story, told by an immigrant from the province of Ibb in Lower Yemen. We examine the triangular relationship between the researcher, the assistant and the informant, and propose that this triangle may account for the gaps between the original transmission and its written reproduction. We define three strategies employed by the Yemeni assistant in transcribing the materials, namely Phonetic Writing, where allophones find their way into the transcript; Analytic Writing, reYealing the assistantｷs familiarit\ Zith Judaeo-Arabic writings; and Substitute Writing, where forms in the informantｷs speech are replaced b\ their correlatiYes in the assistantｷs oZn dialect. Finall\, Ze point to several pitfalls that may hinder an accurate linguistic analysis of the texts, and propose ways to avoid them. Keywords Arabic dialects, folktales, Goitein, oral narration, transcription, Yemen  The study presented here follows from our ongoing survey of Yemeni Arabic in Israel. The project Zas initiall\ sXpported b\ the Eिeleh BeTamar Association, then continXed Zith a grant from the Israel Science Foundation (Grant 1009/18). Preliminary findings of this project were presented by both authors at the 7th International conference on Jewish Languages at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in (June 2019); and by the first author at the 13th Conference of the International Association of Arabic Dialectology, at Akaki Tsereteli State University in Kutaisi, Georgia (June 2019). We extend our gratitude to the Ben-Zvi institute in Jerusalem for approving the publication of scanned extracts and photos from the Goitein Archive, and to Dr. Lavi Shay and the staff of the Ben-Zvi Library for their courteous service and willingness to help at all times. Special thanks are due to Frank H. Stewart of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for his thoughtful comments on an earlier draft of this article.