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Het is the term used byThomas Falkner, an EnglishJesuit, at the end of the 18th century for various nomadic groups from theArgentine Pampas [es] andPatagonia, including the so-calledindigenous Pampas [es] and northernTehuelches, but excluding theMapuche (speakers ofMapudungun).
Falkner subdivided the Het into theChechehet, theDiuihet orDidiuhet, and theTaluhet. The easternmost Didiuhet, near modernBuenos Aires and influenced by theGuarani, were called theQuerandí. It is not clear if these peoples were related linguistically or only culturally.
The Het were neighbored on the north by theChaná, on the northwest and west by the Mapuche, and on the south by thePuelche.
Faulkner in the middle-to-late 1700s had listed few ethnic groups in the northeasternpampas region that were notAraucanian:[1]
| Het | |
|---|---|
| (=Gününa Küne) | |
| (disputed) | |
| Geographic distribution | Argentina |
| Linguistic classification | Macro-Panoan ?
|
| Subdivisions |
|
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | None |
 Het | |
 Approximate distribution of languages in the southern tip of South America at the time of the Conquest. | |
In 1922,Robert Lehmann-Nitsche noted the common "het" in the demonyms and proposed the "Het" language family with multiple members, including Chechehet,Querandí, and Taluhet, although later reduced the family himself to just Chechehet. This idea was later picked up byLoukotka and Mason, but strongly opposed byAntonio Tovar andJosé Pedro Viegas-Barros [es]. Modern researchers consider the Chechehet language to be another name forGününa Küne.[3] In accordance with this theory,Glottolog combines linguistic materials for Chechehet with Puelche.[4]
Viegas-Barros, based on the work ofRodolfo Casamiquela, states that the Het languages are in fact "ghost languages" that never existed, the language name arising from problems of interpretation.[5]
The supposed linguistic similarities between languages of different tribes, grouped by Falkner together as "Hets", are highly disputable.[citation needed]
According toLyle Campbell, the languages are equivalent to Gününa Küne. Campbell (2024) declares Loukotka's findings as stemming form a confusion with a long history".[1]
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Chechehet and Querandí;[6] Taluhet is unattested.
| gloss | Chechehet | Querandí (Didiuhet) |
|---|---|---|
| two | chivil | |
| moon | zobá | |
| earth | chu | |
| bow | afia | |
| great | hati |
