The Het were the people of the northern Patagonia

Patagonia

Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...

n pampas west of the Paraná River

Paraná River

The Paraná River is a river in south Central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina for some . It is second in length only to the Amazon River among South American rivers. The name Paraná is an abbreviation of the phrase "para rehe onáva", which comes from the Tupi language...

: The Chechehet, the Diuihet Didiuhet, and the Taluhet. The easternmost Didiuhet, near modern Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 and influenced by the Guarani, were called the Querandí

Querandí

The Querandí were one of the Het peoples, indigenous South Americans who lived in the Pampas area of Argentina; specifically, they were the eastern Didiuhet. The name Querandí was given by the Guaraní people, as they would consume animal fat in their daily diet. Thus, Querandí means "men with...

 (see). It is not clear if these three peoples were related linguistically or only culturally.

The Het were neighbored on the north by the Chaná, on the northwest and west by the Mapuche, and on the south by the Puelche.

From north to south, the Het peoples were,

• The Taluhet occupied the modern provinces of San Luis
  San Luis Province
  San Luis is a province of Argentina located near the geographical center of the country . Neighboring provinces are, from the north clockwise, La Rioja, Córdoba, La Pampa, Mendoza and San Juan.-History:...
  
   in the east, Córdoba, and Santa Fe
  Santa Fe Province
  The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...
  
   in the west.
• The Diuihet (Didiuhet, Diuhet, Diliuhet) inhabited the coastal region between the La Plata
  Río de la Plata
  The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
  
   and Paraná rivers in Buenos Aires Province
  Buenos Aires Province
  The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
  
  , southern Santa Fe, and inland through La Pampa
  La Pampa Province
  La Pampa is a sparsely populated province of Argentina, located in the Pampas in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise San Luis, Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Río Negro, Neuquén and Mendoza.-History:...
  
   and as far as Mendoza
  Mendoza Province
  The Province of Mendoza is a province of Argentina, located in the western central part of the country in the Cuyo region. It borders to the north with San Juan, the south with La Pampa and Neuquén, the east with San Luis, and to the west with the republic of Chile; the international limit is...
  
  .
• The Chechehet lived as far south as the mouths of the Colorado
  Colorado River (Argentina)
  The Colorado River is a river in the south of Argentina.The Colorado river marks most of the political limit between the provinces of Neuquén and Mendoza, and between Rio Negro and La Pampa...
  
   and Río Negro rivers in southern Buenos Aires Province.

Language

The Het population was decimated by the end of the eighteenth century by epidemics, a fact that facilitated the Mapuche absorption of its territory and its survivors rapid Araucanization

Araucanization

The Araucanization of Patagonia was the process of expansion of Mapuche culture, influence and language from Araucanía into the Patagonic plains. Historians disagree in the time of the expansion but it would have occurred sometime between 1550 and 1850. Amerindian peoples such as the Puelches and...

 at the cultural level that consolidated them into the Puelche. For this reason it is today difficult to find evidence of the Het languages. Of Querandí (Diuihet) we only have two sentences and a few words, recorded by French sailors around 1555. Based on this admittedly inadequate data, Viegas Barros showed that Querandí may have been closely related to Puelche

Puelche language

Puelche is an extinct or nearly extinct language spoken by the Puelche people in the Pampas region of Argentina. The language is also known as Gününa Küne, Gennaken , Pehuenche, Northern Tehuelche, Gününa Yajich, Ranquelche, and Pampa, and may have five speakers, according to Ethnologue, if not it...

. Viegas Barros (2005) further attempted to demonstrate that Puelche is more distantly related to the Chon languages

Chon languages

-External links:*Alain Fabre, 2005, Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: CHON...

to its south.