CHAPTER VII.
THE NEW-HEBREW PIYUT Kalirian and Spanish Piyutim (Poems) .-- Jannai .-- Kalir.
Arabic to a large extent replaced Hebrew as the literary language of the Jews, but Hebrew continued the language of prayer.

As a mere literary form, Rabbinic Hebrew retained a strong hold on the Jews; as a vehicle of devotional feeling, Hebrew reigned supreme.

The earliest additions to the fixed liturgy of the Synagogue were prose-poems.

They were "Occasional Prayers" composed by the precentor for a special occasion.
An appropriate melody or chant accompanied the new hymn, and if the poem and melody met the popular taste, both won a permanent place in the local liturgy.

The hymns were unrhymed and unmetrical, but they may have been written in the form of alphabetical acrostics, such as appear in the 119th and a few other Psalms.
It is not impossible that metre and rhyme grew naturally from the Biblical Hebrew.