diff --git a/src/sage_docbuild/builders.py b/src/sage_docbuild/builders.py
index 91035a0..28b7652 100644
--- a/src/sage_docbuild/builders.py
+++ b/src/sage_docbuild/builders.py
@@ -1161,10 +1161,18 @@ def get_all_documents(source: Path) -> list[Path]:
         True
     """
     documents = []
+    # Get requested languages from the environment if any
+    # getenv default to ' ' to get an empty list if LANGUAGES is not provided
+    DESIRED_LANGUAGES = list(set((os.getenv('LANGUAGES', ' ')).split()))
+
     for lang in [path for path in source.iterdir() if path.is_dir()]:
         if not re.match('^[a-z][a-z]$', lang.name):
             # Skip non-language directories
             continue
+        if DESIRED_LANGUAGES:
+            if not (lang.name in DESIRED_LANGUAGES):
+                # skip languages that are not desired.
+                continue
         for document in lang.iterdir():
             if (document.name not in build_options.OMIT
                     and document.is_dir()):