diff --git a/import2ledger/util.py b/import2ledger/util.py
index 2a859be8e7952f8364604cfb907d27d494a89fde..71635b96daef79978b3d284c3500d9797732737e 100644
--- a/import2ledger/util.py
+++ b/import2ledger/util.py
@@ -1,4 +1,17 @@
 import datetime
+import functools
+
+def _rejoin_slice_words(method_name, source, wordslice, sep=None, limit=None, joiner=None):
+    if joiner is None:
+        joiner = ' ' if sep is None else sep
+    return joiner.join(_slice_words(method_name, source, wordslice, sep, limit))
+rejoin_slice_words = functools.partial(_rejoin_slice_words, 'split')
+rejoin_rslice_words = functools.partial(_rejoin_slice_words, 'rsplit')
+
+def _slice_words(method_name, source, wordslice, sep=None, limit=None):
+    return getattr(source, method_name)(sep, limit)[wordslice]
+slice_words = functools.partial(_slice_words, 'split')
+rslice_words = functools.partial(_slice_words, 'rsplit')
 
 def strpdate(date_s, date_fmt):
     return datetime.datetime.strptime(date_s, date_fmt).date()