diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6cc0bfb..b92eb48 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@
 ## 0.4.0
 
 + Added `ValueProperty`, abstract superclass for `ConfigProperty`
-+ Changed the behavior of `makelist()`: now it can also decorate a callable, converting its return type to a list
++ \[BREAKING] Changed the behavior of `makelist()`: now it's also a decorator, converting its return type to a list (revertable with `wrap=False`)
++ New module `lex` with functions `symbol_table()` and `lex()` — make tokenization more affordable
 + Added `addattr()`
 
 ## 0.3.6
diff --git a/src/suou/__init__.py b/src/suou/__init__.py
index 9d12a76..94d793b 100644
--- a/src/suou/__init__.py
+++ b/src/suou/__init__.py
@@ -27,13 +27,16 @@ from .itertools import makelist, kwargs_prefix, ltuple, rtuple, additem
 from .i18n import I18n, JsonI18n, TomlI18n
 from .snowflake import Snowflake, SnowflakeGen
 
-__version__ = "0.4.0-dev27"
+__version__ = "0.4.0-dev28"
 
 __all__ = (
-    'Siq', 'SiqCache', 'SiqType', 'SiqGen', 'StringCase',
-    'MissingConfigError', 'MissingConfigWarning', 'ConfigOptions', 'ConfigParserConfigSource', 'ConfigSource', 'ConfigValue', 'EnvConfigSource', 'DictConfigSource',
-    'deprecated', 'not_implemented', 'Wanted', 'Incomplete', 'jsonencode', 'ltuple', 'rtuple',
-    'makelist', 'kwargs_prefix', 'I18n', 'JsonI18n', 'TomlI18n', 'cb32encode', 'cb32decode', 'count_ones', 'mask_shift',
-    'want_bytes', 'want_str', 'version', 'b2048encode', 'split_bits', 'join_bits', 'b2048decode',
-    'Snowflake', 'SnowflakeGen', 'ssv_list', 'additem', 'b32lencode', 'b32ldecode', 'b64encode', 'b64decode'
+    'ConfigOptions', 'ConfigParserConfigSource', 'ConfigSource', 'ConfigValue',
+    'DictConfigSource', 'EnvConfigSource', 'I18n', 'Incomplete', 'JsonI18n',
+    'MissingConfigError', 'MissingConfigWarning', 'Siq', 'SiqCache', 'SiqGen', 
+    'SiqType', 'Snowflake', 'SnowflakeGen', 'StringCase', 'TomlI18n', 'Wanted',
+    'additem', 'b2048decode', 'b2048encode', 'b32ldecode', 'b32lencode',
+    'b64encode', 'b64decode', 'cb32encode', 'cb32decode', 'count_ones',
+    'deprecated', 'join_bits', 'jsonencode', 'kwargs_prefix', 'ltuple',
+    'makelist', 'mask_shift', 'not_implemented', 'rtuple', 'split_bits',
+    'ssv_list', 'want_bytes', 'want_str' 
 )
diff --git a/src/suou/exceptions.py b/src/suou/exceptions.py
index bc71037..e6382c0 100644
--- a/src/suou/exceptions.py
+++ b/src/suou/exceptions.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ This software is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 """
 
-
+from .functools import deprecated
 
 class MissingConfigError(LookupError):
     """
@@ -30,4 +30,15 @@ class MissingConfigWarning(MissingConfigError, Warning):
     """
     A required config property is missing, and the application is assuming a default value.
     """
-    pass
\ No newline at end of file
+    pass
+
+
+class LexError(SyntaxError):
+    """
+    Illegal character or sequence found in the token stream.
+    """
+
+class InconsistencyError(RuntimeError):
+    """
+    This program is in a state which it's not supposed to be in.
+    """
diff --git a/src/suou/lex.py b/src/suou/lex.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..086023f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/suou/lex.py
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+"""
+Utilities for tokenization of text.
+
+---
+"""
+
+from re import Match
+
+
+from dataclasses import dataclass
+import re
+from typing import Any, Callable, Iterable
+
+from .exceptions import InconsistencyError, LexError
+
+from .itertools import makelist
+
+
+@dataclass
+class TokenSym:
+    pattern: str
+    label: str
+    cast: Callable[[str], Any] | None = None
+    discard: bool = False
+
+    # convenience methods below
+    def match(self, s: str, index: int = 0) -> Match[str] | None:
+        return re.compile(self.pattern, 0).match(s, index)
+
+@makelist
+def symbol_table(*args: Iterable[tuple | TokenSym], whitespace: str | None = None):
+    """
+    Make a symbol table from a list of tuples.
+
+    Tokens are in form (pattern, label[, cast]) where:
+    - [] means optional
+    - pattern is a regular expression (r-string syntax advised)
+    - label is a constant string
+    - cast is a function 
+
+    Need to strip whitespace? Pass the whitespace= keyword parameter.
+    """
+    for arg in args:
+        if isinstance(arg, TokenSym):
+            pass
+        elif isinstance(arg, tuple):
+            arg = TokenSym(*arg)
+        else:
+            raise TypeError(f'invalid type {arg.__class__.__name__!r}')
+        yield arg
+    if whitespace:
+        yield TokenSym('[' + re.escape(whitespace) + ']+', '', discard=True)
+
+
+
+def ilex(text: str, table: Iterable[TokenSym], *, whitespace = False):
+    """
+    Return a text as a list of tokens, given a token table (iterable of TokenSym).
+
+    ilex() returns a generator; lex() returns a list.
+
+    table must be a result from symbol_table().
+    """
+    i = 0
+    while i < len(text):
+        mo = None
+        for sym in table:
+            if mo := re.compile(sym.pattern).match(text, i):
+                if not sym.discard:
+                    mtext = mo.group(0)
+                    if callable(sym.cast):
+                        mtext = sym.cast(mtext)
+                    yield (sym.label, mtext)
+                elif whitespace:
+                    yield (None, mo.group(0))
+                break
+        if mo is None:
+            raise LexError(f'illegal character near {text[i:i+5]!r}')
+        if i == mo.end(0):
+            raise InconsistencyError
+        i = mo.end(0)
+
+lex = makelist(ilex)
+