There are so many different accents and dialects in PA. It is actually the most diverse state in the nation for dialects. People from the north have an Upstate NY accent. Those in the central part, a PA Dutch accent. Scranton/Wilkes Barre have their own dialect, and then there are the Pittsburgh and Philly accent which are like night and day. The only accent I would classify as hick in PA would be the accents found in the SW part of the state south and east of Pittsburgh. This accent is much like WV, but I really don t like the terminology of hick to describe someone.
There are lots of Pennsylvania accents. There are a couple distinct Philadelphia accents. I have one that is so distinctive, a waitress in another state once spontaneously asked what part of Philadelphia was I from. people from suburban Philadelphia also have a clearly distinctive accent and use Philadelphia pronunciations ( a drink of wudder /water/)The Northeast park of the state, Scranton, Wilkes Barre and coal country in general have a distinctive twangy accent. People in the rural Pa Dutch Counties are very distinctive also. As you go west to Pittsburgh, and the southwest, they sound more like midwesterners to me. They drink pop where in the east, we drink soda. And the folks up in Erie sound like they come from Ohio.I have never heard one referred to as Hick however there may be some relation to that and the folks from nearby West Virginia.
There is definitely a Pennsylvania Dutch influenced accent, which mingled with the upstate New York accent or the Maryland or West Virginia accent, makes for something that is very distinctive. There is also a Pittsburgh area accent. Pennsylvania ia a pretty big, densely populated state with many different ethnicities.
There isn t one Pennsylvania accent. Most eastern counties have their own accent, as well as a distinctive accent for the middle of the state, and then another accent in the Pittsburgh area.
pennsylvania is big, it depends what part you re from. Philly is very different from Pittsburgh, i wouldnt call any of the PA accents hick but i guess it depends what region you are in now.