diff --git a/Lib/distutils/util.py b/Lib/distutils/util.py
index 96266d2..2487f6d 100644
--- a/Lib/distutils/util.py
+++ b/Lib/distutils/util.py
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@
 
 
 # Needed by 'split_quoted()'
-_wordchars_re = re.compile(r'[^\\\'\"\ ]*')
+_wordchars_re = re.compile(r'[^\\\'\"%s ]*' % string.whitespace)
 _squote_re = re.compile(r"'(?:[^'\\]|\\.)*'")
 _dquote_re = re.compile(r'"(?:[^"\\]|\\.)*"')
 
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@
             words.append(s[:end])
             break
 
-        if s[end] == ' ':               # unescaped, unquoted space: now
+        if s[end] in string.whitespace: # unescaped, unquoted whitespace: now
             words.append(s[:end])       # we definitely have a word delimiter
             s = string.lstrip(s[end:])
             pos = 0