diff --git a/lib/liquid.rb b/lib/liquid.rb
index a377f95..62b1c80 100644
--- a/lib/liquid.rb
+++ b/lib/liquid.rb
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ module Liquid
 end
 
 require "liquid/version"
+require 'liquid/lexer'
 require 'liquid/parser'
 require 'liquid/drop'
 require 'liquid/extensions'
diff --git a/lib/liquid/lexer.rb b/lib/liquid/lexer.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..228b998
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/liquid/lexer.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+module Liquid
+  class Token
+    attr_accessor :type, :contents
+    def initialize(*args)
+      @type, @contents = args
+    end
+
+    def self.[](*args)
+      Token.new(*args)
+    end
+
+    def inspect
+      out = "<#{@type}"
+      out << ": \'#{@contents}\'" if contents
+      out << '>'
+    end
+  end
+
+  class Lexer
+    SPECIALS = {
+      '|' => :pipe,
+      '.' => :dot,
+      ':' => :colon,
+      ',' => :comma
+    }
+
+    def initialize(input)
+      @input = input.chars.to_a
+    end
+
+    def tokenize
+      @p = 0
+      @output = []
+
+      loop do
+        consume_whitespace
+        c = @input[@p]
+
+        # are we out of input?
+        return @output unless c
+
+        if identifier?(c)
+          @output << consume_identifier
+        elsif s = SPECIALS[c]
+          @output << Token[s]
+          @p += 1
+        end
+      end
+    end
+
+    def identifier?(c)
+      c =~ /^[\w\-]$/
+    end
+
+    def whitespace?(c)
+      c =~ /^\s$/
+    end
+
+    def consume_whitespace
+      while whitespace?(@input[@p])
+        @p += 1
+      end
+    end
+
+    def consume_identifier
+      str = ""
+      while identifier?(@input[@p])
+        str << @input[@p]
+        @p += 1
+      end
+      Token[:identifier, str]
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/lib/liquid/parser.rb b/lib/liquid/parser.rb
index af25996..e7126e7 100644
--- a/lib/liquid/parser.rb
+++ b/lib/liquid/parser.rb
@@ -3,13 +3,24 @@ module Liquid
   # it provides helpers and encapsulates state
   class Parser
     def initialize(input)
-      @tokens = tokenize(input)
+      l = Lexer.new(input)
+      @tokens = l.tokenize
       @p = 0 # pointer to current location
     end
 
-    def tokenize(input)
-      # "foo.bar | filter: baz, qux" becomes ["foo", ".", "bar", "|", "filter", ":", "baz", ",", "qux"]
-      input.split(/\b/).map {|tok| tok.strip}
+    def consume(type)
+      token = @tokens[@p]
+      if match && token.type != type
+        raise SyntaxError, "Expected #{match} but found #{@tokens[@p]}"
+      end
+      @p += 1
+      token
     end
+
+    def look(type)
+      @tokens[@p].type == type
+    end
+
+    # === General Liquid parsing functions ===
   end
 end