Hearty welcome? Cordial reception?

No one would deny,
The English Language has transformed into the most common medium of communication over the world.

Sometimes called a "lingua franca" (a borrowing from Italian), the present state of English suggests that it is no longer a possession of any particular country, but of those who use it.

One of the factors that has pushed English into the status is its copious vocabulary, often characterised as a "cosmopolitan vocabulary." A number of Japanese has been added into the English vocabulary. For example, the latest entry was 焼きそば "yakisoba" in March 2012. (The new entry passage in OED website, after introducing some new words from Australia, says that "More exotically still, we have yakisoba n., a Japanese dish of fried wheat-flour noodles, seeing enough clear usage as an English word to merit inclusion in the dictionary."

The "international" character of the English vocabulary had its origin back even in the earlier time when English came into Britain. Historically speaking, English has mingled with many other languages such as Latin, Celt, Old Norse, French.

In particular, the mixture with French has broadened the potential range of lexicon: As the language of Germanic root, an encounter with French meant that with the so-called "Romance" language, an "etymologically" different line of language.

What's important in considering the lexical richness of English is how differently each word carries meanings/implications, even if the core of the sense is nearly the same.

For instance, how does a phrase "hearty welcome" sound to you, as compared with "cordial reception"? Do these phrases sound differently? Actually, they sound quite differently depending on the context. A close look at the "etymology" leads you to understand why and how they differ. Here is an interesting clip that tells the story behind the phrases.