In Brazilian Portuguese, all countries are gendered. In European Portuguese, only some are. What was it like in earlier eras of the language?

Answer 1

I'm wondering where you got your information, because it's not accurate. In Portuguese, every noun and pronoun has a gender. However, the accents are quite different, and it may be less clear or more difficult to understand a Portuguese speaker of Portugal compared to a Brazilian. That said, it may sound that the Portuguese speaker of Portugal is leaving off certain prepositions or articles, as they speak very quickly and often shorten words to fewer syllables. However, if you've seen this in text or writing, it is certainly incorrect, and may be more of a Portuguese slang - rather than an official rule of the language. Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese are not dialects, they are the same language - just as the US and Great Britain have different terms and ways of speaking, there are consistent grammar rules which should be followed.