which pronunciation for clarity is more popular?

as shown below, would you like to tell me which pronunciation is more popular? Thanks a lot.

Hi,
I used to pronounce the a's in those kinds of words the same as the "a" in "cat", /æ/ - /kæt/ (IPA).
Now I'm trying to change that, and I always try to pronounce those a's followed by r's as in "air", /er/ (IPA).

So I used to say "clarity" as /klærəti/ (precise IPA transcription: /klæɹəɾi/)
and now I say "cl-air-uh-ti", /klerəti/ (precise IPA transcription: /kleɹəɾi/)

You can hear "clarity" as "cl-air-uh-ti" here: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clarity (click on the red little speaker)

I don't know what's the difference, but maybe /klærəti/ is more of a feature of the English spoken on the East Coast of the USA (and maybe British English, according to my dictionaries, but I really don't know, I'm really not an expert in British English).

Thank you all for these comments. CJ, I did not ask that question about character, but thanks for putting them together to help me understand this issue better.

By my feeling, American pronunciation is "longer" and sometimes "cumbersome" in contrast to British counterpart. Do you agree with this?

CalifJim wrote:

as shown below, would you like to tell me which pronunciation is more popular? The first one.  (No surprise there.  Normally dictionaries list them in that order.)  The second is heard more in areas along the East Coast.  You're right.  But not even the entire East Coast.  Far more Americans throughout the entire U.S. use that first pronuciation - the one given on the m-w website. Didn't you ask the same question, more or less, about character?   The same idea applies to both. CJ

In General American, it is pronounced [k_hlEr@4i]. Certain East Coast dialects do not have the very-vary merger, and still pronounce it with /æ/. Speakers with the Canadian or California vowel shifts will pronounce /E/ as [æ] however.

>> I don't think the California vowel shift has caught up with me yet. <<

When I was in California last, it seemed to be fairly consistent in only young women, although I did hear it occasionally in most people's speech that I talked to.