The television show "Outlander" is largely set in the Scottish Highlands, in and around a laird's castle, in 1743. A few linguistic questions:

• As depicted in the show, the principal working language of the castle's noble residents and common employees and hangers-on is English, but certain ceremonial actions are conducted in Scottish Gaelic, which is still universally understood. Private conversations among townspeople seem to generally be in English. Is this an accurate portrayal of language use?

• A clergyman attempts to conduct an exorcism (in Latin), and the congregants participate in prayers in Latin? Wouldn't the Highlands have been Presbyterian at that time, and what language would religious services have been conducted in?

I'm studying it this year and I'm wondering if you have any recommendations for me. Good documentaries to watch would also help me.

A friend asked me this today, and I realized that with my knowledge of the middle east, I didn't have an answer for him. So my question for you guys is has there ever been a lengthy period of peace in the region. Between things like the Crusades, the Palestinian conflict, etc it's obviously had more than it's share of conflict.

Why did we 'invent' capital letters? When did they first appear and how else have they been used throughout history (now, usually for proper nouns and the starts of sentences along with some other niche uses)?

Kind of self explantory. How old is the oldest reference to flipping a coin to settle disputes? Was it ever a serious issue, ie. backed by force of law?

It seems like certain Nordic cultures seem to have some similarities with Asian cultures. One example that should be mentioned is the common ancestry between the Finnish and Japanese languages to Altaic languages. This is however the only connection I can seem to find that is definite, other than that, I also found traditional Norwegian/Swedish architecture to resemble that of possibly Japanese/Chinese design.

To add to the similarities, it seems as though Norwegian and Swedish are tonal languages contrary to Finnish, could this also be a connection to China?

While reading over World War 2, I'm reminded of just how destructive and vicious it was as a conflict. How did two of the war's primary belligerents go on to not only become economic powerhouses in their own right, but also such close allies of the United States, who had been one of the primary enemies?

I was browsing the medieval history threads here and it reminded me of a strange fact my high school English teacher told us. We were reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and getting a little bit of background knowledge, and she told us that one of the main jobs of a squire was cleaning a knight's armor of human waste. Since hearing that, whenever I see or read about squires I recall this statement.

I assume she meant after a lengthy battle, which did not permit such activities, but I don't know... What was the idea there? How did they use the bathroom on the road? In battle? Was my teacher full of shit (heh), or did squires really do this?

Preferably something fairly engaging that might stimulate discussion (its optional reading for the undergraduate tutorial I'll be TA-ing). By way of example, Tim Jeal's "Explorers of the Nile" was really well received last fall (in a separate class) and it'd be great if I could find a book as engrossing as that. Thanks AskHistorians, you're the best!

I'm curious, as I'm sure many always have been regarding this, considering how far they had come already.

Was he all conqueror? It is to my understanding he often left his conquered territories alone as long as they paid up.
He went from India to the border of China and backed away because the locals said there was a much bigger army on the other side and his men were bitching about the rain and wanted to go home. And yet even then on the way home he pushed into an area he had never been before. Did he just want to go on tour, in force?

As far as I know, both were not indigenous to Europe (cacao beans from South America and red beans from the Far East). So, why did the former become dominantly popular while the latter become the 'exotic flavor form Japan'?

I'm just beginning law school and this question recently occurred to me. Was the term "human rights" novel at the time of the UN Declaration in 1948? From where did the idea originate that all humans have a set of inherent rights that could and should be codified?

I'm watching about Churchill sinking French ships, and if Britain falls, US plans for Nazi invasion and I'm curious how realistic it really was. My understanding was that US involvement in Europe was easily possible with England as a launch pad. Did the Nazis plan on taking a South American country as a jumping off point? Where there any official plans or just speculation?