diff --git a/llama.cpp b/llama.cpp
index 3b6d23eac..44104be66 100644
--- a/llama.cpp
+++ b/llama.cpp
@@ -279,14 +279,9 @@ struct llama_vocab {
     std::vector<token_score> id_to_token;
 
     std::unordered_map<token, id> special_token_to_id;
-    size_t max_special_token_length = 0;
 
     void add_special_token(const token & word, id token_id) {
         special_token_to_id[word] = token_id;
-
-        if (max_special_token_length < word.size()) {
-            max_special_token_length = word.size();
-        }
     }
 };
 
@@ -2088,38 +2083,6 @@ private:
     llama_sp_bigram::queue work_queue_;
 };
 
-static std::vector<size_t> llama_split_special_tokens(const llama_vocab & vocab, const std::string & text) {
-    std::vector<size_t> offsets{0};
-    size_t start = 0;
-
-    while (start < text.size()) {
-        size_t max_end = start;
-        const std::string * max_delimiter = nullptr;
-
-        for (const auto & mit : vocab.special_token_to_id) {
-            const std::string & delimiter = mit.first;
-            size_t end = start + delimiter.size();
-            if (end <= text.size() && text.compare(start, delimiter.size(), delimiter) == 0) {
-                if (max_delimiter == nullptr || delimiter.size() > max_delimiter->size()) {
-                    max_end = end;
-                    max_delimiter = &delimiter;
-                }
-            }
-        }
-
-        if (max_delimiter != nullptr) {
-            offsets.push_back(start);
-            offsets.push_back(max_end);
-            start = max_end;
-        } else {
-            start++;
-        }
-    }
-
-    offsets.push_back(text.size());
-    return offsets;
-}
-
 static std::vector<llama_vocab::id> llama_tokenize(const llama_vocab & vocab, const std::string & text, bool bos) {
     llama_tokenizer tokenizer(vocab);
     std::vector<llama_vocab::id> output;
@@ -2137,27 +2100,40 @@ static std::vector<llama_vocab::id> llama_tokenize(const llama_vocab & vocab, co
         return output;
     }
 
-    std::vector<size_t> offsets = llama_split_special_tokens(vocab, text);
-    size_t start = 0;
-    for (size_t end : offsets) {
-        if (start >= end) {
-            continue;
-        }
+    size_t delim_start = 0;
+    size_t last_delim_end = 0;
 
-        const char *part = text.c_str() + start;
-        size_t part_len = end - start;
-        if (vocab.max_special_token_length < part_len) {
-            tokenizer.tokenize(part, part_len, output);
-        } else {
-            auto token_it = vocab.special_token_to_id.find(std::string(part, part_len));
-            if (token_it != vocab.special_token_to_id.end()) {
-                output.push_back(token_it->second);
-            } else {
-                tokenizer.tokenize(part, part_len, output);
+    while (delim_start < text.size()) {
+        size_t delim_end = 0;
+        llama_vocab::id token_id = -1;
+
+        for (const auto & mit : vocab.special_token_to_id) {
+            const std::string & delimiter = mit.first;
+            size_t end = delim_start + delimiter.size();
+            if (end <= text.size() && text.compare(delim_start, delimiter.size(), delimiter) == 0) {
+                if (token_id == -1 || end > delim_end) {
+                    token_id = mit.second;
+                    delim_end = end;
+                }
             }
         }
-        start = end;
+
+        if (token_id != -1) {
+            if (last_delim_end < delim_start) {
+                tokenizer.tokenize(text.c_str() + last_delim_end, delim_start - last_delim_end, output);
+            }
+            output.push_back(token_id);
+            delim_start = delim_end;
+            last_delim_end = delim_end;
+        } else {
+            delim_start++;
+        }
     }
+
+    if (last_delim_end < text.size()) {
+        tokenizer.tokenize(text.c_str() + last_delim_end, text.size() - last_delim_end, output);
+    }
+
     return output;
 }