If you use Data.Text, there is splitOn:
http://hackage.haskell.org/packages/archive/text/0.11.2.0/doc/html/Data-Text.html#v:splitOn
This is built in the Haskell Platform.
So for instance:
import qualified Data.Text as T
main = print $ T.splitOn (T.pack " ") (T.pack "this is a test")
or:
{-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}
import qualified Data.Text as T
main = print $ T.splitOn " " "this is a test"