In Japanese, these aren’t noun suffixes but number suffixes, known as counters or classifiers. You don’t say, “*ninjin ga san” [three carrots], but rather, “ninjin ga sanbon” [three-cylinder-shaped carrots].
Mass nouns behave in a similar way in English: you don’t say “*three breads”, but rather, “three loaves of bread”. Also, “head of cattle”, “slices of toast”, “sheets of paper”, “items of cutlery”, etc.
In Japanese, these aren’t noun suffixes but number suffixes, known as counters or classifiers. You don’t say, “*ninjin ga san” [three carrots], but rather, “ninjin ga sanbon” [three-cylinder-shaped carrots].
Mass nouns behave in a similar way in English: you don’t say “*three breads”, but rather, “three loaves of bread”. Also, “head of cattle”, “slices of toast”, “sheets of paper”, “items of cutlery”, etc.
In Navajo, the classifiers are verb stems.