Kay was educated at The Mary Erskine School in Edinburgh. She completed a MA in English Language and Literature at the University of Edinburgh, before continuing on to Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, USA.[2]
After this Kay took on English language teaching in Sweden, as well as professional lexicography.[2]
Kay first arrived at the University of Glasgow as a research assistant.[2] At the age of 27, she became one of four co-editors and in 1979 she became a full-time lecturer in the English Language Department.[7]
Of her career, Professor Kay is quoted as having said,
"I never intended to be an academic. I worked in journalism, English-language teaching and publishing before becoming a research assistant and then a lecturer at Glasgow. The common thread is an interest in language."[8]
Recognised as an academic leader, and a scholar, over the course of her career, Kay had under her employ in 233 researchers and production staff.[4][8][9]
In 1995 Kay and Jane Roberts published A Thesaurus of Old English, and in 1996 Kay was promoted from Senior Lecturer to Professor.[7]
Kay was the original convenor of the board of Scottish Language Dictionaries (SLD), which was formed in 2002.[9][10][11]
Retiring in 2005, Kay remained active in the facilitation and research in Thesaurus-derived projects.[2] She continued to actively support the completion of the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary which was published on 22 October 2009.[12]
Kay is credited to have created the first computer laboratory for English studies in the world, developing cutting-edge teaching software, and first of its kind research-led courses in literary and linguistic computing.[2]
In 2013, the University of Glasgow awarded her Professor Kay an honorary D.Litt. for her outstanding contribution service to the study of the English language.[2][8]
In 1989, when Professor Samuels retired, Kay became Director of the Historical Thesaurus project.[3][7][12]
The result of 44 years of work, the HTOED received critical acclaim and was awarded the Saltire Society Research Book of the Year Award in 2009.[5] In review by The New York Times, the commentator noted,
"historians, sociologists, philosophers and literary critics will soon wonder how they got by for so long without it... indispensable."[13]
Randolph Quirk, Emeritus Quain Professor of English Language and Literature at University College, London reported,
"Forty five years of exacting scholarship by a well-led team have had a triumphal outcome. This book is a magnificent achievement of quite extraordinary value. It is perhaps the single most significant tool ever devised for investigating semantic, social, and intellectual history."[14][15]
An overwhelming success, the HTOED has generated significant royalties allowing for a legacy of funding for postgraduate studentships continuing research into the linguistics of English and of Scots.[2]
Kay died in 2016 at the age of 76. She is survived by her sister and brother.[2] She requested no funeral.[16]
The Christian Kay Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Undergraduate Research into Modern English Language and Linguistics was set up in her memory at the University of Glasgow.[8]
