The Concise Scots Dictionary is a pocket version of the same masterly book, an online 22-volume dictionary featuring all - or almost all - Scots words ever uttered. Despite these celebrated achievements, staff at Scottish Language Dictionaries, in Edinburgh, were yesterday reeling from the arts council's decision not to fund their work over the next two years.

Christine Robinson, the director of Scottish Language Dictionaries, said that news of the “very worrying” decision had given her a sleepless night, but vowed to fight on to maintain the work of a unique research organisation, which was founded in 2002.

“I cannot imagine for one moment that our Scottish Parliament will fail to safeguard Scots and that we, as stewards of the language, will not be able to continue,” said Dr Robinson, who is an honorary fellow of the school of philosophy, psychology and language sciences at the University of Edinburgh. “We work on modest budgets. With proper funding, we can do for Scots what the Oxford English Dictionary has done for English. The arts council have funded us in the past - we don't want to waste that investment. If this resource is allowed to collapse, it will be a calamity.”

The decision not to publicly fund Scots language organisations baffled those observers who had been impressed by the Scottish government's commitment to Scots and the SNP's promise to audit its provision of the language in schools.

Even the arts council's own assessment of Scottish Language Dictionaries described the project in glowing terms, commending “the scope and breadth of its work [which] is both astonishing and humbling, and, it is important to stress, national in impact and significance.” Yet, having applied for £155,000, the organisation received nothing. Likewise, the Scots Language Centre, in Perth, which had applied for £113,000, received no funds from the public body.

Linda Fabiani, the Scottish Culture Minister, reiterated her commitment to actively encourage the use of the Scots language in education, broadcasting and the arts, and said that the proposed audit would identify opportunities to promote the language.

“Any action we take in the future to improve provision for the Scots language will be guided by the findings of our audit, and associated work,” she said.

Bill Wilson, the SNP MSP for the West of Scotland, said that he was “fair scunnered” by the funding announcement.

“The Scottish Arts Council are going to have to explain how they came to cut out the two bodies which are the central pillars for the support of the Scots language,” he said.

The arts council emphasised that with the advent of Creative Scotland, new funding streams may become available.

“There have been and will be other funding streams,” said Jim Tough, SAC's acting chief executive.